BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Lucía Giménez still suffers pain in her knees from the years she spent scrubbing floors in the men’s bathroom at the Opus Dei residence in Argentina’s capital for hours without pay.
Giménez, now 56, joined the conservative Catholic group in her native Paraguay at the age of 14 with the promise she would get an education. But instead of math or history, she was trained in cooking, cleaning and other household chores to serve in Opus Dei residences and retirement homes.
For 18 years she washed clothes, scrubbed bathrooms and attended to the group’s needs for 12 hours a day, with breaks only for meals and praying. Despite her hard labor, she says: “I never saw money in my hands.”
Giménez and 41 other women have filed a complaint against Opus Dei to the Vatican for alleged labor exploitation, as well as abuse of power and of conscience. The Argentine and Paraguayan citizens worked for the movement in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Italy and Kazakhstan between 1974 and 2015.
…The complaint alleges the women, often minors at the time, labored under “manifestly illegal conditions“ that included working without pay for 12 hours-plus without breaks except for food or prayer, no registration in the Social Security system and other violations of basic rights.
The women are demanding financial reparations from Opus Dei and that it acknowledges the abuses and apologizes to them, as well as the punishment of those responsible.
“I was sick of the pain in my knees, of getting down on my knees to do the showers,” Giménez told The Associated Press. “They don’t give you time to think, to criticize and say that you don’t like it. You have to endure because you have to surrender totally to God.”
…The women in the complaint have one thing in common: humble origins. They were recruited and separated from their families between the ages of 12 and 16. In some cases, like Gimenez’s, they were taken to Opus Dei centers in another country, circumventing immigration controls.
They claim that Opus Dei priests and other members exercised “coercion of conscience” on the women to pressure them to serve and to frighten them with spiritual evils if they didn’t comply with the supposed will of God. They also controlled their relations with the outside world.
Most of the women asked to leave as the physical and psychological demands became intolerable. But when they finally did, they were left without money. Many also said they needed psychological treatment after leaving Opus Dei.
“The hierarchy (of Opus Dei) is aware of these practices,” said Sebastián Sal, the women’s lawyer. “It is an internal policy of Opus Dei. The search for these women is conducted the same way throughout the world. ... It is something institutional.”
The women’s complaint, filed in September with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also points to dozens of priests affiliated with Opus Dei for their alleged “intervention, participation and knowledge in the denounced events.”
…Those women alleged spiritual and psychological abuse, of being separated from family and being told their discomfort was “God’s will” and that abandoning their vocation would be tantamount to abandoning God.
…“We do not have any official notification from the Vatican about the existence of a complaint of this type,” Josefina Madariaga, director of Opus Dei’s press office in Argentina, told the AP. She said the women’s lawyer informed the group last year of their complaints about the lack of contributions to Argentina’s social security system.
…Beatriz Delgado, who worked for Opus Dei for 23 years in Argentina and Uruguay, said she was told “that I had to give my salary to the director and that everyone gave it. ... It was part of giving to God.”
“They convince you with the vocation, with ‘God calls you, God asks this of you, you cannot fail God.’ ... They hooked me with that,” she said.
So far, the Vatican has not ruled on the complaint and it’s not clear if it will. A Vatican spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for information.
If there is no response, the women’s legal representatives say they will initiate criminal proceedings for “human trafficking, reduction to servitude, awareness control and illegitimate deprivation of liberty” against Opus Dei in Argentina and other countries the women worked in.
Argentine law sanctions human trafficking with prison sentences of four to 15 years. The statute of limitations is 12 years after the alleged crime ceases.
“They say, ‘we are going to help poor people,’ but it’s a lie; they don’t help, they keep (the money) for themselves,” Giménez said. “It is very important to achieve some justice.”
—Débora Rey The Associated Press, “Women in Argentina claim labor exploitation by Opus Dei,” Toronto Star (November 12, 2021)
Last week in France, a young woman came forward with a lawsuit against members of Opus Dei, alleging abuse of labor laws and practices that were psychologically and physically harmful while she served as a Numerary Assistant within Opus Dei.
She claims that she was forced to work from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week and, like many within Opus Dei, her salary was returned to the community. Beginning at the age of 14, she was encouraged to distance herself from her family for 15 years and during that time grew progressively ill.
In 2001, her parents intervened and helped her to recover after a doctor said she should not return to Opus Dei for the sake of her health.
The scandal is not just that one young woman experienced unjust labor practices disguised as a religious vocation, as tragic as that is, but that her story is not unique.
There were approximately 4,000 Numerary Assistants worldwide as of 2005, according to Opus Dei: An objective look behind the myths and reality of the most controversial force in the Catholic Church by NCR’s John L. Allen, Jr.
Opus Dei’s 1950 Constitutions term these members as “servants” and only later was the label replaced by the less controversial term “assistants,” or “auxiliaries,” when Opus Dei was named a personal prelature by the Vatican in 1982.
What’s more, these Numerary Assistants comprise the least educated class within the hierarchy of the institute and hold little to no decision-making power within the ranks. Instead, they are to work in a spirit of “full submission,” according to the Constitutions.
Perhaps not surprising to those who recognize the structural sin of sexism within Catholicism, equally reflected in the hierarchy of Opus Dei, Numerary Assistants -- those with the least power -- are only allowed to be women, most of whom were recruited when they were young.
These women begin their experience of Opus Dei starting when they are of high school or college-age by entering one of the prelature’s “hospitality” training centers. It is in these centers that they are educated in the finer points of laundering, cleaning and cooking and go on to serve in Opus Dei residences or retreat centers.
This would be dignified work if done in freedom and supported with a living wage, but as the lawsuit contends, this is not the case.
These training centers, often drawing women from economically and socially disadvantaged families, are located in numerous countries across the globe, ranging from Brazil to Ireland. The United States’ training center is based in Chicago. While a few schools admit men, they are predominantly women-only or their student body is primarily female.
…I believe…the real crisis for the church, including Opus Dei, is not that Catholics have abandoned the faith.
The real crisis is a lack of credibility in any structure of church leadership that is responsible for the cover-up and abuse of young people. As there should be, there is a lack of trust in a religious system that values secrecy over the well-being of its members, that values preservation of institutional power over the inherent dignity of its youngest adherents.
This is the greater scandal. This is the greater sin.
[Nicole Sotelo is the author of Women Healing from Abuse: Meditations for Finding Peace, published by Paulist Press, and coordinates www.WomenHealing.com. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she currently works at Call To Action.]
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/real-scandal-opus-dei-and-church
—Nicole Sotelo, “The real scandal for Opus Dei and the church,” National Catholic Reporter (September 27, 2011)
The spiritual abuse suffered by the assistant numeraries is possibly easy to cite as evidence of systemic evil because it is probably the most glaring offense systemically perpetrated by Opus Dei.
It is “spiritual abuse” because Opus Dei’s interpretation of the Roman Catholic religion was used to justify abusive practices.
The historical record is that the abuses in question were systemically perpetrated in Opus Dei for religious reasons.
The two articles cited above list the following abuses.
Violation of human rights
“Giménez and 41 other women have filed a complaint against Opus Dei to the Vatican for alleged labor exploitation, as well as abuse of power and of conscience.
“…The complaint alleges the women, often minors at the time, labored under ‘manifestly illegal conditions’ that included working without pay for 12 hours-plus without breaks except for food or prayer, no registration in the Social Security system and other violations of basic rights.”
“…when [the women] finally [left Opus Dei], they were left without money.”
“[Josefina Madariaga, director of Opus Dei’s press office in Argentina] said the women’s lawyer informed the group last year of their complaints about the lack of contributions to Argentina’s social security system.”
“If there is no response, the women’s legal representatives say they will initiate criminal proceedings for ‘human trafficking, reduction to servitude, awareness control and illegitimate deprivation of liberty’ against Opus Dei in Argentina and other countries the women worked in.”
“Last week in France, a young woman came forward with a lawsuit against members of Opus Dei, alleging abuse of labor laws and practices that were psychologically and physically harmful while she served as a Numerary Assistant within Opus Dei.”
“These women begin their experience of Opus Dei starting when they are of high school or college-age by entering one of the prelature’s ‘hospitality’ training centers. It is in these centers that they are educated in the finer points of laundering, cleaning and cooking and go on to serve in Opus Dei residences or retreat centers.
“This would be dignified work if done in freedom and supported with a living wage, but as the lawsuit contends, this is not the case.”
Commentary
The principal offense the victims cite is the violation of their labor rights, specifically, their right to a just wage. Furthermore, they claim that in some cases Opus Dei did not comply with the labor laws of a particular country, including paying contributions to the Social Security System, which supplies compensation to workers upon their retirement. Violation of their other rights is entailed, sometimes impliedly, including the abuse of the right to information, the right to informed consent, and the right of conscience. Workers are not given sufficient information to make informed choices in conscience. Moreover, they aren’t allowed to investigate other sources of information by themselves, freely, information that would help guide and enlighten their consciences in their commitment to Opus Dei.
Deception and manipulation of the vulnerable
“Giménez, now 56, joined the conservative Catholic group in her native Paraguay at the age of 14 with the promise she would get an education. But instead of math or history, she was trained in cooking, cleaning and other household chores to serve in Opus Dei residences and retirement homes.”
“…The women in the complaint have one thing in common: humble origins.”
“‘They say, “we are going to help poor people,” but it’s a lie; they don’t help, they keep (the money) for themselves,’ Giménez said. ‘It is very important to achieve some justice.’”
Commentary
Because of the lower socioeconomic status of the assistant numeraries, they are particularly vulnerable to manipulation. It is difficult for them to contend against the version of reality that is imposed upon them or to oppose it.
They complain specifically about deception—they did not receive the “education” that they had been promised.
In this as in other cases, that is, not only for the manual workers in Opus Dei, deception appears to be systemic—it is the propagation throughout the organization of a version of reality that is not subject to critical evaluation internally. It is an ideological formula propounded by Opus Dei directors as gospel truth. We might describe it as delusion.
Spiritual abuse
“‘They don’t give you time to think, to criticize and say that you don’t like it. You have to endure because you have to surrender totally to God.’”
“They claim that Opus Dei priests and other members exercised ‘coercion of conscience’ on the women to pressure them to serve and to frighten them with spiritual evils if they didn’t comply with the supposed will of God.”
“…Those women alleged spiritual and psychological abuse, of being separated from family and being told their discomfort was ‘God’s will’ and that abandoning their vocation would be tantamount to abandoning God.”
“…Beatriz Delgado, who worked for Opus Dei for 23 years in Argentina and Uruguay, said she was told ‘that I had to give my salary to the director and that everyone gave it. ... It was part of giving to God.’
“‘They convince you with the vocation, with “God calls you, God asks this of you, you cannot fail God.” ... They hooked me with that,’ she said.”
“…these Numerary Assistants comprise the least educated class within the hierarchy of the institute and hold little to no decision-making power within the ranks. Instead, they are to work in a spirit of ‘full submission,’ according to the Constitutions.”
“…not surprising to those who recognize the structural sin of sexism within Catholicism, equally reflected in the hierarchy of Opus Dei, Numerary Assistants -- those with the least power -- are only allowed to be women, most of whom were recruited when they were young.”
Commentary
The justification for practices that are on its face abusive is religious. Religious language is used to rationalize the system—“surrender,” “submission,” “will of God,” “vocation.” However, from alternate legitimate standpoints, the system isn’t inspired by God at all, since it violates human rights. How can it come from God if it perpetrates evil?
The system in fact illustrates the abuse of religion; it instantiates what has been described as “too much religion.”
Father Jake Anderson (0:09):
“Is it possible to be too religious?...Is it possible to be too Christian?...It is actually possible to be too religious. Do you remember in the gospel who Jesus reserved the harshest words for in Scripture?...Jesus reserved the harshest words of…condemnation for the Pharisees. …Interestingly, the Pharisees were the ‘most religious’ people of the time. They loved the law. They were quite meticulous at it. …they preached, talked a lot, but they did not practice. Second, and this is a little more subtle,…they elevated the importance of the petty things over and above the more weighty things.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJqhruW5Kkw
—Gopher Catholic, “Can you be too religious?” YouTube video, 6:44 minutes, April 6, 2024
Cultic practices
“[Opus Dei priests] controlled their relations with the outside world.”
“‘It is an internal policy of Opus Dei. The search for these women is conducted the same way throughout the world. ... It is something institutional.’”
“The scandal is not just that one young woman experienced unjust labor practices disguised as a religious vocation, as tragic as that is, but that her story is not unique.”
“…I believe…the real crisis for the church, including Opus Dei, is not that Catholics have abandoned the faith.
“The real crisis is a lack of credibility in any structure of church leadership that is responsible for the cover-up and abuse of young people. As there should be, there is a lack of trust in a religious system that values secrecy over the well-being of its members, that values preservation of institutional power over the inherent dignity of its youngest adherents.
“This is the greater scandal. This is the greater sin.”
Commentary
Significantly, the abuse documented in the articles does not represent isolated instances but rather systemic maltreatment. The fault is institutional, not limited to Opus Dei but extending to the entire structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Institutional failings include, for example, the power asymmetry that unduly favors the clerical hierarchy and the underlying sexism that prejudices female manual workers.
The structural character of the spiritual abuse in Opus Dei can be summed up under the sociological rubric of “cult.”
“Is Opus Dei a Cult?”
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html
“Opus Dei Is a Cult”
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2023/05/opus-dei-is-cult.html
Psychological harm and damage
“They were recruited and separated from their families between the ages of 12 and 16.”
“Most of the women asked to leave as the physical and psychological demands became intolerable. …Many also said they needed psychological treatment after leaving Opus Dei.”
“Beginning at the age of 14, she was encouraged to distance herself from her family for 15 years and during that time grew progressively ill.
“In 2001, her parents intervened and helped her to recover after a doctor said she should not return to Opus Dei for the sake of her health.”
Commentary
Cultic alienation from the family which Opus Dei imposes on young people potentially results in their psychological harm and dysfunction, which can be severe.
Basically, emotional and psychological damage occurs when cults purport to substitute for the family.
Because the family is a critical source of psychological and emotional support for children and youth, the love and solicitude of the family is necessary for their healthy psychological development. Damaging or destroying family relations at such a critical point in human development can cause lasting, even lifetime harm. Categorically, cult membership and love-bombing does not substitute for a supportive and loving family.
Work of the devil
So far the above exposition has shown that specific religious beliefs and practices of Opus Dei are abusive and thereby demonstrably evil.
Systemic evil is readily demonstrated with respect to the plight of former assistant numeraries, although it has been argued elsewhere that they do not constitute the only class of victims.
Whence did systemic abuse in Opus Dei arise? The answer is simply Saint Josemaria Escriva himself. Escriva claimed to be the infallible source of the so-called “spirit of Opus Dei,” that is, Opus Dei’s allegedly divinely inspired charism.
When those who are sympathetic to Opus Dei are challenged with charges of abuse, they often seek to resolve their cognitive dissonance by engaging in denial. They assign the reported abuse to rogue sources in the organization or to individual member failings.
Denial is a psychological defense mechanism.
Their repudiation of Escriva’s original responsibility for the systemic abuse is implausible because Opus Dei directors—the priests and laity who run the institution—consistently, sometimes insistently cite the beliefs and practices of Escriva together with his claim of infallible divine inspiration whenever Opus Dei praxis is cited as questionable, objectionable, or even demonstrably evil. Escriva’s religious ideology, if you will, serves as their ultimate justification for the spiritual abuse. They understand obedience to his ideology as virtue and holiness.
begin
“...As a condition of membership [Escriva] demanded acceptance that ‘The Work’ was divinely revealed to him, that it was therefore ‘absolutely perfect,’ and that he was infallible in matters of the ‘spirit of the Work.’”
—John Roche, former Opus Dei numerary, “The Inner World of Opus Dei,” unpublished manuscript (1982)
“...Escriva always insisted that Opus Dei was not his own invention, that it was not the consequence of a series of speculations, analyses, discussions, or experiments, and that it was not the result of good and pious intentions. He clearly implied that the actual founder was God Himself and that the commission of the task to a young priest was a supernatural act, a unique grace.”
—Peter Berglar, Opus Dei: Life and Work of Its Founder Josemaria Escriva (1994)
Many instances may be cited of Saint Josemaria Escriva’s belief in his own infallibility as an instrument of God, using his own words:
“My children I try...to throw out...gold coins, the gold of God…if you don’t pick them up, you are doing wrong, and God our Lord will ask a very strict accounting from you.”
—Cronica (1971)
“…[Opus Dei’s] spirit transcends all geographical, historical, social, or cultural barriers. It transcends as well the evolutionary developments over the ages. As a result, as long as there are men on earth, there will be Opus Dei...[our internal law] by the will of God contains everything necessary for our sanctification and our effectiveness. That is why it is holy, unchangeable, everlasting. God has entrusted this treasure to us. Our first obligation, then, is to guard and defend it exactly as we have received it...There will never come a time, now or in the centuries to come, in which circumstances would advocate habitually abandoning some part of our internal law.”
—Cronica (1968)
Blessed Alvaro del Portillo (1914-1994), Escriva’s protégé and the “second Founder” of Opus Dei, roundly curses those who challenge or repudiate the assumption that Saint Escriva infallibly communicates the Opus Dei “spirit” revealed by God:
begin “If someone would try to divert The Work [Opus Dei] from the divine characteristics that our Founder has given us…if [someone] would try to undermine The Work of God…he would be entitled to the DIVINE CURSE [all capitals mine]” (Alvaro del Portillo, quoted in “Meditations,” VI, page 223) end
—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), page 18
end
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html
Escriva’s claim of infallible divine inspiration—what amounts to, in effect, justification by private revelation—is precisely the door wherein the possibility of demonic influence enters.
In the first place, the devil has with God’s permission the restricted capacity to influence the thoughts and emotions of the seer.
begin Can the devil directly affect our intellect?
The devil has the capacity to affect not only our senses, emotions, and imagination, but also our intellect. See, for example, Saint Teresa of Avila’s account of her experience of the devil’s presence.
“I have seldom seen him in bodily shape, but I have often seen him without any form, as in the kind of vision I have described, in which no form is seen but the object is known to be there.” (Life of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Chapter 31, 276)
The saint describes what she later terms an “intellectual vision.” See The Interior Castle, Chapter 8, 2.
The position that the devil cannot directly influence our intellect is argued in Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Question 80, Article 1:
The interior part of the soul is intellective and sensitive; and the intellective part contains the intellect and the will. ...Now the intellect, of its very nature, is moved by that which enlightens it in the knowledge of truth, which the devil has no intention of doing in man's regard; rather does he darken man's reason so that it may consent to sin, which darkness is due to the imagination and sensitive appetite. Consequently, the operation of the devil seems to be confined to the imagination and sensitive appetite, by moving either of which he can induce man to sin. For his operation may result in presenting certain forms to the imagination; and he is able to incite the sensitive appetite to some passion or other.
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/2080.htm
The devil does not directly present information to the intellect, but he can directly affect our intellect insofar as our intellect is inherently joined to our senses, and to our imagination and memory, all of which and over which the devil is allowed to exercise some degree of influence and control. Our senses, and our imagination and memory are all subject to the influence and control of the devil through temptation. end
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/07/what-are-spirits.html
Second, the alleged evidence of extraordinary phenomena in order to justify any claims of divine inspiration is also a door of entry to demonic action.
begin In obsession the demons implant thoughts and emotions, which become harmful when they are taken up and implemented by the subject.
In the case of Opus Dei, the obsession would be reinforced by preternatural phenomena, as if to validate the thoughts and emotions of the subject led astray.
Escriva’s claims of divine revelation are highly problematic.
I would say that in some cases the devil co-opts Opus Dei beliefs and practices directly deriving from Escriva.
His canonization makes the issue even more problematic than it already is. end
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2023/05/opus-dei-is-cult.html
I know of a report in which an Opus Dei numerary related seeing a vision of the deceased Escriva—he was not yet beatified at the time—wherein his luminous three-dimensional apparition appeared to gaze at the seer from inside a picture frame sitting on a table in the Opus Dei living room, as if through a window.
At the time the Opus Dei director declared to the numerary that the vision had been sent by God to validate the numerary’s alleged vocation to Opus Dei over and above the objections he was harboring against the system, which he said “didn’t make sense.”
Having left Opus Dei some time afterwards, he maintains the selfsame objections to the present day, about issues which have been shown to be problematic and which have been corroborated by the critical literature on Opus Dei.
DEMONIC INFLUENCE
It has been persuasively argued that the definitive criterion for the discernment of the spirits is given by Jesus’ words, “By your fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:16)
See:
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2021/07/consolation-and-desolation.html
If at least some of the fruits of Opus Dei praxis are demonstrably evil, then the source of the evil is indisputably concupiscence or the human tendency to sin, which is the legacy of original sin. However, we should add that concupiscence may act in conjunction with demonic contribution and influence, although it does not happen always or necessarily.
Opus Dei—Work
of God, work of man—work of the devil?
Public domain photo
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
THE PRINCIPLE OF CONGRUENCE
ReplyDeleteThe inconsistency between the morally questionable or objectionable beliefs and practices of Opus Dei on the one hand, and their justification on the basis of private revelation on the other, to wit, the claim that God revealed his will for Opus Dei through Saint Josemaria Escriva as his infallible instrument, based on the evidence and strength of allegedly supernatural events, violates the principle of congruence.
The claim of supernatural events is used to justify what is demonstrably unethical. Yet the two are inconsistent, incompatible, and incongruent.
The principle of congruence is “…the principle of consistency, logical and moral, between claims based on the spirits—conveyed, for example, through visions, locutions, and the like—and the beliefs and actions indicated thereby, and external circumstances. External circumstances include the favorable judgment of legitimate and appropriate religious or spiritual authority, and the support of reason and demonstration. Inconsistency points towards repudiation.”
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/07/discernmentwhat-is-it.html
Gonzalinho
“TOO MUCH RELIGION”
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/pTg7U-6ykbs?si=yokgcGtgmRCH2FJR
—RTÉ News, “The unveiling of Opus Dei | Upfront with Katie Hannon,” YouTube video, 20:42 minutes, April 29, 2024
The institution of the Church seriously lacks an understanding of healthy psychological development. The institution is trapped in religious box—it’s an instance of “too much religion.” Religion definitely doesn’t have all the answers, and the institution has much that is valuable to learn from the world outside it.
Gonzalinho
15:32
DeleteKatie Hannon (KH): Looking back, how would you characterize your time with them?
Margaret Joyce (MJ): They took away my childhood. …developmental stages of your life, like emotionally, mentally…they took all of that, they took away my self-worth, I find it difficult to accept affection, love…I don’t know how to manage that, I have self-critical, very, very [critical] of myself…it’s actually abuse, that’s what it is, it’s child abuse…it’s emotional and it’s actually physical as regards to morning to night working, and there’s no other word for it, really, it’s child abuse.
18:39
MJ: There’s no acknowledgement by Opus Dei of the hurt they’ve caused, not only to me but to other ex-members who have come out since, and at the end of the day, it’s still my fault here. It’s not about, they’re basically saying, any of their practices or behavior, it’s about how that experience impacted me, and it’s unique to me, and they don’t accept that, and then they’re saying, reach out, basically, to them, for support—so go back to the perpetrators of the abuse for healing, just so that I can be re-traumatized again.
KH: When they say that they have made mistakes and they ask for forgiveness?
MJ: I don’t accept it because what they’re saying there is that…the reason you were hurt or you felt hurt is because…of the way…you experienced it, but…that’s not an apology, it’s saying it’s nothing to do with their practices, it’s just my experience of it. Yet there [are] loads of ex-members that have come forward with all the same stories of hurt and trauma.
Gonzalinho
[Correction] The institution is trapped in a religious box...
DeleteGonzalinho
It’s apparent that many are coming round to recognizing the systemic evils in Opus Dei, but it’s taking many, many years. Now, some structural evils in the Church persisted for centuries before they were understood for what they genuinely were and thereby acknowledged—so in this respect we aren’t dealing with anything new. In many intransigent ways the Church is the same animal it has always been.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
ReplyDelete0:10
On March 16th 2024 at 6:31 UTC, the Financial Times, a little newspaper that you might have heard of, published an article titled The Opus Dei Diaries by Antonia Cundy, how girls around the world were coerced into decades of grueling service to a secretive Catholic group. This topic brings me no joy…it has never brought me joy…but from the moment that I first learned about assistant numeraries and about the hell that they are put through in this organization, I felt compelled to do everything that I can to amplify their experiences and shed light on the truth of what this organization is. I’ve done that through many different videos at this point over the course of several years, and so while this is not a joyful occasion, there is something curiously vindicating about the fact that the discussion around this organization’s alleged crimes is finally gaining enough momentum to attract the notice of a publication as well recognized and read as the Financial Times. That is significant, and I don’t think that it can be overstated. Change and progress and awareness are extremely slow in coming…particularly when it meets the type of opposition that an organization as well off as Opus Dei is able to put up. However, with every single story that comes out, there is a growing volume of damning evidence against what I consider to be one of the most predatory and opportunistic religious organizations in the world. For my own part, this channel has and always will be focused on exposing the truth one video at a time, and when necessary amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced for far too long.
5:31
There are many assistant numeraries across the world living lives quite similar to the one I have explained. I feel that these women’s human rights are severely breached by the attitudes and rules of Opus Dei. However, Opus Dei continues to justify and allow this type of status to exist. It can only be described as a serious exploitation of a vulnerable group of women in the name of God. It’s actually abuse, that’s what it is. It’s child abuse…it’s emotional and it’s physical as regards the actual like morning to night working…and there’s no other word for it…it’s child abuse.
6:25
[Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 4] No one shall be held in servitude.
7:08
If you were to print this article out, it would be over 30 pages long. It is lengthy and comprehensive, and after reading through it the themes that emerged for me are those of manipulation, love bombing, lying, and coercion—serious issues that need to be discussed and addressed. Because the article is so lengthy, I won’t be reading it in its entirety here, so if you have not had a chance yet to read through it yourself, there are two links down in the description of this video, along with all of my other sources. The first link will take you to the Financial Times itself with the article. It is behind a pay wall, but if you are in a position to be able to support good journalism, I would ask that you consider doing so, because this type of work is extremely important and it does come at a cost. It’s not easy to do. However, I don’t want a pay wall to be the reason why someone does not get access to this information, and so the second link [https://archive.is/KkSRU] is for an archived version of the article, and you can access that and share it as many times as you want to, and I would ask that you please do so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvMQq8M_3Ko&t=619s
—TheDeepDiveProject, “Opus Dei is NOT above the LAW (trafficking, exploitation, lies, and coercion) | Opus Dei Deep Dive,” YouTube video, 1:35:37 hours, May 23, 2024
Thank you, Rebecca Anne Griffin, independent journalist.
Gonzalinho
FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENT
ReplyDelete0:28
In 2017 a bank in Spain collapsed, and I was asked to cover it, and initially it seemed just like the same old story…I mean, we’ve had a bunch of banks collapse in Europe and across the world since 2008, and it seemed like the same old story of like, you know, basically management had taken too many risks, hadn’t stayed on top of what they were doing, and things had just spiraled out of control, and the thing had all come crumbling down. So I reported on the bank…and that was the story for…everyone else as well, and I just left it. But then two years later, and …through my partner who had a sabbatical at work, she had six months, she’s an academic, she had six months to go off and you know do whatever she wanted to do, and I asked my boss at IFR [International Financing Review] whether I might go join her and live in Spain for six months and just work remotely from Spain, still doing my day job, and for whatever reason he said yes, and this is before the pandemic and before like remote working became standard.
1:43
I…kind of need to justify being in this other part of the world. I’m going to look back into that collapsed bank story, because I’d seen in the newspapers that some of the investors that were involved in the bank and some of the bond holders were starting to sue to try to get some of their money back, and so I thought, hey, there’s…probably an interesting financial story here…and so I went around, met all of the interested parties, and basically the more I dug the less sense it all seemed to make.
2:24
They felt very strongly that the bank shouldn’t have collapsed…the main shareholder, this organization called The Syndicate, had just disappeared from view. They’d been dissolved as an entity…the main company behind The Syndicate had been dissolved as an entity, and I thought that’s a bit odd. So I kind of dug a bit more, and I kind of got into the history of the bank, and I discovered that this bank that had collapsed 20 years earlier…30 years earlier it had received all these prizes, like the most profitable bank in the world like, you know, head of like J. P. Morgan and Citibank and all this stuff, and I was like, now that’s a very interesting narrative…maybe there’s a big story here.
3:25
Basically…I got into contact with one of the old bosses of the bank who had run this bank, Banco Popular, it was called…these two brothers had run the bank for like 15 years alongside each other. One of the brothers who had had died by this stage was called Luis Valls-Taberner, and he’d been a member of Opus Dei, a numerary member of Opus Dei, which means that it’s kind of the inner sanctum of Opus Dei. These are people…that dedicate [their] lives to the movement…the other brother was this guy called Javier Valls-Taberner, and he was very different. He was not religious, he was outgoing, he you know he loved good food good wine, he loved his golf you know…they were kind of polar opposites. …[Javier] was still around, he was very old quite sick but you know extremely lucid, and he basically told me everything…how it was that this bank had collapsed…you know gone from this peak…to this very deep trough, and I asked him directly this The Syndicate, you know… I can’t seem to find them, what is it? And he basically said it’s Opus Dei…wow…that set me off on a journey that took me down this very deep very long rabbit hole out of which I’m just about emerging now, but events keep threatening to kind of drag me back in.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENT
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57:04
Opus Dei managed to get its claws into Banco Popular in the 50s after finding a piece of compromising material about…the Chairman, and they used that material in order to muscle their way and to basically…hijack the bank, and very quickly they reconfigured the bank to effectively turn into a cash machine for Opus Dei—to finance its expansion to every part of the world…so the takeover took place…over a number of years. It took them a little while…to buy up the shares it needed and to engineer its takeover, but by 1959 they were in charge. It took them maybe about five, six years…to get there…when I was writing this book [I] had…pieced together a bunch of of records from the bank, and I had in my mind that we were talking maybe one or $200 million that had been siphoned…from the bank, but more recently it’s become apparent that the figure is much, much higher. What happened was that the Chairman of the bank, Luis Valls-Taberner, used his position to divert the bank’s funds to…three Spanish foundations, which then became critical vehicles in…the expansion of Opus Dei. So these vehicles like you know we’re talking…arm’s-length foundations and companies…on the face of it had nothing at all to do with Opus Dei…they were given like anodyne names like the foundation for educational excellence or you know like whatever…but they…effectively became vehicles for passing money from the bank to Opus Dei initiatives all around the world, including in Argentina where…the Banco Popular school where many of these girls were recruited was directly funded by the Spanish Bank. So that was one way, but also the Chairman in addition to creating these foundations, he also carved out a bunch of shares and halved them off [i.e., invested] into other foundations that were held by Opus Dei, and they also made soft loans…I also trace in the book you know a series of financial flows between Spain into Switzerland and then into tax havens like Liechtenstein and Panama and Curacao where the money then went into other Opus Dei foundations in other parts of the world. So I think we know at least a billion dollars…was siphoned from the bank, and I would think probably that’s an underestimate…at its height, what did Opus Dei’s assets look like…we don’t know the answer to this question because Opus Dei refuses to recognize or provide a list of foundations that are linked to it. I have directly challenged Opus Dei to provide me with a list affiliated foundations. It has refused…in fact it refuses to acknowledge that any of these foundations are in any way linked to it. So we simply don’t know but okay in the US I managed to trace about almost a hundred nonprofits that were linked to Opus Dei, and between them they had assets of about a billion dollars.
To be continued 2
Gonzalinho
FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENT
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Now the United States is not even a large country for Opus Dei. The biggest countries are Spain, Mexico, Italy, Argentina…so if that’s how Opus Dei looks in the States, we can only imagine what Opus Dei looks like in these other countries [with] much more opaque financial environments. …What I hope is that my book is a jumping off point for a lot of investigative reporters out there who will do the digging. I simply didn’t have the time and capacity to dig…there are many stories to be written there…and I sincerely hope that the book is just the start of this and…that journalists out there…will dig more into this and maybe one day we’ll be able to answer that question. …What about your sense for how diversified their investment portfolio was…property was the was the main thing they had, I mean had this castle on the banks of like Lake Como, they had this like seventeenth-century French chateau… the property on Lake Como they recently sold to a luxury brand…LVMH, right…the cost of buying it is about $100 million…the money is now parked in one of…these foundations…we’re recording this in London, and about 50 miles from here they own a very large country manor, in the US you know in Boston they’ve got this Tiffany mansion that also has been put up for sale, around the world they have a vast property portfolio, but they also have stocks and shares and bonds and cash yes…so it’s a diversified portfolio, but I think…it’s pretty real estate heavy…the buildings where the numeraries live…they…are owned by individual foundations which Opus Dei of course has nothing to do with [it] just happens that they could very well be traced back to Banco Popular.
1:07:51
Since the collapse of the bank, how has this affected the financial situation of Opus Dei? Clearly, the collapse of the bank has been a major blow to Opus Dei, but serendipitously perhaps…this blow has come at a time when it’s found another rich seam of cash in the US. So Opus Dei has become more closely allied to a group of billionaires and to a group of people that control huge pools of dark money, which have given [Opus Dei] a new financial lease of life. … But the irony…of this new alliance is that many of these people are—they’re all devout Catholics—but they’re openly hostile to Pope Francis and his message of compassion and…questioning capitalism this kind of thing, and so publicly Opus Dei says it…loves the pope and is obedient to the pope and all this stuff whilst at the same time allying with these people who are openly hostile to the pope, with the people who’ve been linked to this thing called the red hat project where basically they’re looking past Francis and they’re looking to in influence the next conclave to elect a more conservative Pope because they’re horrified…at the direction that Francis is taking the church in.
To be continued 3
Gonzalinho
FRAUD AND EMBEZZLEMENT
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1:11:11
It becomes pretty clear they were so brazen with their fraud and embezzling Opus Dei with Banco Popular, so I wanted to ask you which is closer to the truth—one that they were just so overly confident in their ability to cover it up because of the secrecy of the organization, or two this type of financial behavior is far more common than we realize. I think both things can be true I think they believed…they had put together a system that would never be exposed that could would allow these flows…to remain hidden for eternity…but they what they weren’t banking on was the collapse of the bank and the opening up critically for me…of the Banco Popular archives, which has allowed me to piece together this story. Had the bank not collapsed, this story would have been impossible to write. …who knew that for so many years it was funneling all this money to this crazy religious organization that’s trying to change the world?
https://youtu.be/C5DBS-vr3OU?si=G1hknrbXz4fKPRFa
—Curious Worldview Podcast, “Gareth Gore| Unveiling The Conspiracy of Opus Dei,” YouTube video, 1:42:05 hours, October 8, 2024
Thank you, Gareth Gore, financial and investigative journalist, for your professionalism, detail, depth, coherence, and integrity.
Gonzalinho
57:04
Delete[Correction] ...I have directly challenged Opus Dei to provide me with a list [of] affiliated foundations. It has refused…
Gonzalinho
57:04
Delete[Correction] ...when I was writing this book [I] had…pieced together a bunch...of records from the bank...
Gonzalinho
RELIGIOUS CULT AND RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY
ReplyDelete7:19
The book offers a window into the movement—its predatory recruitment techniques, the psychological abuse borne down on members, and the control over their daily lives. This book also explores the vast empire that Opus Dei controls today. In New York, Murray Hill Place rises 17 stories from the corner of Lexington and 34th. There is no signage on the red brick-and-limestone building, just a single discreet entrance. Behind the walls of this nondescript building, a well-oiled brainwashing machine is at work. Shut off from their families in the world outside, dozens of young recruits are subjected to a grueling timetable of prayer, introspection, and corporal modification. Those with university degrees are encouraged to seek well-paid jobs in law or finance and to hand over all their earnings to the order. Men without a university degree are usually not admitted, although the organization actively recruits lesser educated women, some only teenagers who are pushed into a life of servitude of punishing 15-hour days cleaning and cooking, their night spent sleeping on wooden planks. It’s a scene repeated across the globe in London, Nairobi, Sydney, Tokyo, and numerous other cities. These residential centers are fed by a network of schools and universities where teenagers are educated using only those books approved by Opus Dei priests and where newspapers and magazines regularly have inappropriate content cut out [and] television and internet are censored. Meanwhile in Rome, the leaders of this movement live a life of opulence at the palatial Villa Tevere…lastly, the book raises important questions about the forces that shape our society, shedding light on some of the hidden actors that lurk beneath the surface. As the organization approaches its centenary, it presents an opportunity to reassess Opus Dei, showing the cult to be the centerpiece of a real-life conspiracy.
9:44
The endgame is the complete re-Christianization of society from the top down by targeting the elites first…what is Opus Dei? Okay…there are two sides to Opus Dei—I mean there’s the public facing very friendly side of Opus Dei that the organization likes to present itself as. So 90% of members are these things called supernumeraries, these are just kind of ordinary Catholics who have decided to join the organization, I would argue on false pretenses because they want to kind of go deeper into their faith.
10:51
There’s a hidden underbelly to the movement that few people, including that 90% of members, the supernumeraries…that few people know anything about. So 10% of members are this class of membership called the numeraries. These are people who have often been targeted from a very young age, have been recruited into the movement and have been basically controlled and manipulated for their entire lives, they [are] cut off from their families and their friends…
To be continued
Gonzalinho
RELIGIOUS CULT AND RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY
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11:58
Opus Dei presents itself as…a benign kind of organization that’s just helping ordinary Catholics, but you know I basically got access to a treasure trove of internal documents and the writings of the Founder where it set out in black-and-white that the mission of Opus Dei is something quite different and it’s something which is…far more ambitious and far darker—I mean this is an organization that seeks to re-Christianize the entire world. …This re-Christianization, there is no resemblance to the Christianity that many people recognize—you know, love, charity, this kind of thing. This is an extremely conservative reading of the Bible…I think it would be fair to argue that the organization wants nothing short of theocracy. They want society to be reshaped entirely and every strand of society—from government to education to the judiciary to you know everything, everything to be shaped by the very warped, distorted, conservative, radical reading of of the Bible.
…But Opus Dei hides behind this veneer of respectability, and what enables it to do that [is]…the fact that…it’s an official wing of the [Catholic] Church…it’s a part of the Church that’s been authorized by…the Vatican… it’s been given this legitimacy by the Church and that enables it to basically take advantage of ordinary Catholics.
14:54
It hides behind this legitimacy in order…to convince people to drop their guard so that it can go in and basically get its claws into new recruits.
19:21
The end point for Opus Dei was rewriting the legal systems to reflect their worldview as they would like to see it…the Founder of Opus Dei wrote…that he was building an army for Christ. He called them kind of a hidden militia and he said he was recruiting people that would go into battle against the enemies of Christ. He very much saw this as a battle.
24:51
After Franco won the war…he returned to Madrid, and he basically started from scratch, with this extremely authoritarian conservative dictator in power, Opus Dei suddenly took off…there’s a number of kind of technical reasons that we can get into if you like [about] why that happened or not, but…basically Franco saw Opus Dei as a movement that was aligned…with his worldview…in fact you know he had a private retreat with Escriva…at the palace where he lived…and he described Escriva as a…very loyal citizen…the Franco regime provided Opus Dei with money and with operational resources to expand…the Franco regime also created an ideal environment for Opus Dei to expand.
To be continued 2
Gonzalinho
RELIGIOUS CULT AND RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY
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26:55
In the early years of Opus Dei Escriva had also developed a really detailed blueprint for how to surreptitiously recruit young people who he identified as being talented, potentially powerful one day, yes absolutely…so he identified people that would be tomorrow’s elite, you know…the best students at university, the ones from …good, you know, wealthy families.
46:51
Opus Dei is a cult, you know, fundamentalist religious organization that is actively recruiting people for the sole purpose of building more power for the organization to influence the world to become the way that they want it…politics is involved, the Vatican’s involved, the biggest money in the world [is] involved.
1:22:05
More recently…Antonia Cundy at Financial Times has done some excellent reporting on…the abuses in Ireland and also the organization’s recruitment of children. I think in those cases it’s not easy but the strategy is for Opus Dei to say that these are one-off instances of you know this is not what the organization is about. My book is very different because my book basically exposes this systematic abuse—these are not glitches in the system, this is how the system is designed, and so it’s going to be hard for them to just say…these are just one-off instances. There are hundreds if not thousands of victims of this systematic abuse and so that’s not going to be an option for them.
1:23:17
The right thing for Opus Dei to do is to hold its hands up and say we f***d up, we’re really sorry—we’re going to absolutely reform the entire system. But you know what, I don’t believe…it can do that because Opus Dei is built on this understanding that Escriva received a vision from God and…this vision was like meticulously detailed. He wrote this down, and so everything that…the organization does today is based on these Foundation documents that he wrote and that based on the vision that he received from God. So to challenge anything is to challenge the entire infrastructure of Opus Dei…is to challenge the foundations on which the organization was built. I think the organization is trapped by its own narrative. It can’t reform…I know there are calls for it to reform from within but…I believe that it will be unable…to reform. I think the Vatican is going to have to intervene.
https://youtu.be/C5DBS-vr3OU?si=G1hknrbXz4fKPRFa
—Curious Worldview Podcast, “Gareth Gore| Unveiling The Conspiracy of Opus Dei,” YouTube video, 1:42:05 hours, October 8, 2024
Gonzalinho
CHARISM OR DELUSION?
DeleteDoes the so-called Opus Dei charism come from God? Some relevant links:
“The Discernment of Prophecy” (June 24, 2018)
Describes three criteria for evaluating the authenticity of a claim to prophecy
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/06/discernment-of-prophecy.html
“The Demand for Signs” (June 24, 2018)
Are signs necessary to confirm the authenticity of a prophecy?
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-demand-for-signs.html
“The Doctrine of Reception” (October 7, 2017)
Reception is one important means for evaluating the authenticity of a prophecy.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-doctrine-of-reception.html
“‘The Father’ of Lies” (October 2, 2017)
Opus Dei is a work of man and a work of the devil.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-father-of-lies.html
If we were to profess that Opus Dei is wholly the Work of God, then we would also have to conclude God is a trickster and a tyrant. God the trickster relies on deceit to advance a cult agenda. God the tyrant brainwashes his followers. He requires absolute obedience under the threat of eternal damnation.
But God is not like this at all—God speaks truth always, he does not deceive us, he invites us to participate in his work of love in the world, and he does not inflict himself upon us like a jackhammer.
It would be more accurate to say that it is Opus Dei who is the trickster and the tyrant, and Escriva, who is the origin of Opus Dei, is the source of the trickster and tyrant side of Opus Dei.
…Opus Dei is the Work of God and the work of man, in some important respects probably in cooperation with the devil, and as such, it is the work of the devil. I don’t agree with the logic that argues a false dichotomy, that is, that Opus Dei is either-or, either the Work of God or something else. Opus Dei is obviously the work of man, and the evil it has propagated has been done, most likely, in conjunction with the influence of the devil. In this respect, Opus Dei is also the work of the devil.
Saint Josemaria Escriva was a liar—he lied, he taught many thousands to lie, and he wrought great destruction in the lives of many as a result of lies. His lying ways are a telltale sign that he was under the influence of the devil in this critical respect. He lied in two ways principally—deception of others and delusion or self-deception. He propounded and spread his own delusions.
Personal sacrifice is part and parcel of any spiritual undertaking. In Opus Dei you are being asked to consume yourself for the sake of a narrow, distorted, and ultimately untruthful interpretation of the Roman Catholic faith falsely represented as dogma.
You are being asked to die for a lie. This kind of spiritual and ascetical regime is a living hell.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2020/12/work-of-god-or-work-of-man.html
Gonzalinho
11:58
Delete[Correction] ...by the very warped, distorted, conservative, radical reading...of the Bible.
Gonzalinho
“Opus Dei hides behind this veneer of respectability, and what enables it to do that [is]…the fact that…it’s an official wing of the [Catholic] Church…it’s a part of the Church that’s been authorized by…the Vatican… it’s been given this legitimacy by the Church and that enables it to basically take advantage of ordinary Catholics.”
DeleteWhat I’ve been saying for nearly thirty years.
Gonzalinho
Hear, Lord, my plea for justice; pay heed to my cry; listen to my prayer from lips without guile. (Psalm 17:1)
DeleteGonzalinho
A CANCER IN THE CHURCH
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/reHcPa3fJCI?si=Kr-gBW2faHyDGrS0
—TheDeepDiveProject, “I was WRONG about Opus Dei (and J.D. Vance is involved) | Opus Dei Deep Dive,” YouTube video, 46:48 minutes, September 29, 2024
See 37:15
“For all its talk about allegiance to the Vatican, the Church, and the teachings of Jesus Christ, Opus Dei seems unconcerned that many of the conservative forces it now embraces in the United States are openly hostile to the pope—even going so far as to undermine his authority and plot against him…the principal things that drive Opus Dei are the CULT-LIKE WORSHIP OF THE FOUNDER AND ITS OWN EXPANSION [ALLCAPS mine]. Its methods and practices have corrupted the outlook of even its own leadership, which has time and time again proven unwilling and unable to reform, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence of abuse and coercion in its ranks. Opus Dei is a danger to itself, its membership, the Church, and the world.”
—Gareth Gore, Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church (2024)
Opus Dei willfully incorporates obstinate moral evil in its system. In this respect, it does the work of the devil.
Opus Dei is a cancer in the Church.
See page 12:
“For all its talk about allegiance to the Vatican, the Church, and the teachings of Jesus Christ, Opus Dei seems unconcerned that many of the conservative forces it now embraces in the United States are openly hostile to the pope—even going so far as to undermine his authority and plot against him…the principal things that drive Opus Dei are the CULT-LIKE WORSHIP OF THE FOUNDER AND ITS OWN EXPANSION [ALLCAPS mine]. Its methods and practices have corrupted the outlook of even its own leadership, which has time and time again proven unwilling and unable to reform, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence of abuse and coercion in its ranks. Opus Dei is a danger to itself, its membership, the Church, and the world.”
—Gareth Gore, Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church (2024)
“the principal things that drive Opus Dei are the cult-like worship of the founder and its own expansion”—here I underscore two main points:
1. Saint Josemaria is treated in an idolatrous manner. See:
“...As a condition of membership [Escriva] demanded acceptance that ‘The Work’ was divinely revealed to him, that it was therefore ‘absolutely perfect,’ and that he was infallible in matters of the ‘spirit of the Work.’”
—John Roche, former Opus Dei numerary, “The Inner World of Opus Dei,” unpublished manuscript (1982)
“...Escriva always insisted that Opus Dei was not his own invention, that it was not the consequence of a series of speculations, analyses, discussions, or experiments, and that it was not the result of good and pious intentions. He clearly implied that the actual founder was God Himself and that the commission of the task to a young priest was a supernatural act, a unique grace.”
—Peter Berglar, Opus Dei: Life and Work of Its Founder Josemaria Escriva (1994)
Many instances may be cited of Saint Josemaria Escriva’s belief in his own infallibility as an instrument of God, using his own words:
“My children I try...to throw out...gold coins, the gold of God…if you don’t pick them up, you are doing wrong, and God our Lord will ask a very strict accounting from you.”
—Cronica (1971)
...“Escriva is God.”
—Lou Nicholas Calugcug, former Opus Dei numerary
Opus Dei is identified with God—a sin against the first two commandments—so that the choice of Opus Dei is represented as the choice of God. This identity is untenable in the absolute sense. Opus Dei is not God.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html
To be continued
Gonzalinho
Continued
Delete2. The organization is its own end. The well-being or welfare—whether spiritual, psychological, or some other salutary human benefit—of the members is secondary and instrumental to the primary end. Not surprisingly, many members are turned into mincemeat by the organization. See:
Indoctrination in what is not true, either wholly or in part, is ungodly. If Opus Dei propagates the true doctrine of the Roman Catholic faith, it is doing the work of God, surely, but in many instances the institution is propagating its own bigotry, biases, wrongheadedness, and untruths—and it propagates these ideas as if they were dogma, that is, as claims to be accepted without questioning and sometimes even without understanding. This habit of indoctrination is in my view the result of demonic influence. We can place the distorted construction of Escriva in this category—his inflated, imaginary biography is the propagation of untruth, and for what purpose, we might ask? It is to propagate the organization. The organization has become its own end, an idol, in fact, substituting the worship due to God alone, according to the first and second commandments.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2023/09/brainwashing-as-charism.html
It’s apparent that many are coming round to recognizing the systemic evils in Opus Dei, but it’s taking many, many years. Now, some structural evils in the Church persisted for centuries before they were understood for what they genuinely were and thereby acknowledged—so in this respect we aren’t dealing with anything new. In many intransigent ways the Church is the same animal it has always been.
At this point I am morally certain that the devil plays a role in the so-called “spirit of Opus Dei.” His fingerprints are evident throughout Opus Dei beliefs and practices, many of which are at best suspiciously unethical and at worst morally evil. Opus Dei’s objectionable ethos includes routine violation of the basic rights of those who deal with the organization, including especially the rights of the celibate members, together with appallingly insupportable and morally reprehensible practices like habitual systemic deception, human trafficking, and the lack or absence of financial transparency and accountability involving billions and billions of dollars.
“By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:16-17)
Masterfully, incomparably intelligent, the devil knows which targets to pick and how to tempt and influence them in order to draw them into evil under the guise of holiness.
“Religion is a hat the devil wears to cover his horns.”
https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/01/aphorisms.html
Only the pope has the power to step in and check the demonstrably evil and verifiably harmful ethos of Opus Dei, which all signs indicate originates in the teachings, directives, and conduct of Saint Josemaria Escrivá.
Gonzalinho
It’s difficult to say if the devil is directly involved. No doubt the devil is indirectly involved, because God allows him to act and intervene in human activity. To what extent is the devil involved? It’s impossible to be perfectly objective or effectively precise about it because he is invisible together with his actions. On the other hand, the evil in Opus Dei appears to be sophisticated, subtle, pernicious, and markedly corrosive. It is undeniably damaging, in varying degrees. As the experience of many assistant numeraries shows, the damage can be very serious besides lifelong. That is why major aspects of the enterprise look like the devil’s work to me. As I’ve said, I am morally certain.
DeleteGonzalinho
HOW MANY OPUS DEI MEMBERS?
ReplyDelete“Opus Dei has around 90,000 members, both men and women. 98% are laypeople, most of whom are married. The remaining 2% are priests. …
“The Prelature is made up of around 93,000 people, of whom about 2,095 are priests. Of the total, approximately 57% are women and 43% men. The distribution by continent is as follows: Africa 4%, America 34%, Asia 4%, Europe 57%, Oceania 1%.
“Apart from the priests of the prelature, some 1,900 priests, and also some deacons, incardinated in different dioceses throughout the world belong to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.”
https://opusdei.org/en/article/members/
—“Christians in the Middle of the World,” Opus Dei
The number of the priests and deacons are not at issue because they should be listed in official directories issued at the diocesan or national levels. The following comment concerns the laity.
Opus Dei loves to throw around its allegedly large numbers. Numbers are very important in Opus Dei. They serve many purposes. They are, among others, supposed to signal legitimacy and success.
Has Opus Dei ever made publicly available verifiable statistics? Does it show how many join and how many leave? Does it keep records on what levels of membership are maintained over how many years? No, it doesn’t. It even claims that it doesn’t keep records! If it doesn’t keep records, then how can it claim thousands and thousands of members?
The answer is consistent with how Opus Dei operates: Opus Dei lies.
Gonzalinho
THE DOOR TO REFORM
ReplyDeleteAlready after many decades it has been adequately demonstrated that evil fruits are the result of accepting without reservation Saint Josemaria Escriva’s claim based on private revelation of his appointment by God as God’s infallible instrument in defining and implementing Opus Dei spirituality.
If we assume that Escriva is the infallible purveyor of God’s will for Opus Dei, then we end up being trapped in the prison of this narrative. It becomes impossible to reform Escriva’s deeply flawed vision of Opus Dei because any changes are taboo. They are tantamount to opposing God.
On the other hand, if the cause of the problem is theological, the solution to the irreformability of Opus Dei is at least in part theological. We submit that one appropriate theological door by which reform can enter Opus Dei is the theology of reception.
The doctrine of reception argues that if a teaching of the Church is not infallible, it is indeed subject to revision, according to the reception of all the faithful, the entire Church. This type of reception is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, according to the doctrine of reception, even infallible doctrines are subject to development in the sense that we the faithful can acquire a deeper and more developed understanding of the doctrines over time.
We believe that Escriva is not infallible in the matter of defining Opus Dei spirituality. In an earlier post I said:
We would observe that the Opus Dei “spirit” at best participates in the fourth level of the Magisterium, with the caveat that in saying so we specifically refer to Opus Dei beliefs and practices—by far the majority—that are not intrinsically connected to teachings at the first to third levels of the Magisterium.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-infallibility-of-opus-dei-spirit.html
See “The Fourth Level of the Magisterium”:
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-fourth-level-of-magisterium.html
To be continued
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THE DOOR TO REFORM
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Cardinal Henry Newman expounded the doctrine of reception in his 1859 essay, “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.” See:
Newman described the sense of the faithful in a famous 1859 essay, “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.” He suggested that one could think about the sense of the faithful in five ways: a testimony to the fact of apostolic dogma; as a sort of instinct or phronema, a Greek term which we might best translate as “fundamental intentionality,” deep in the life of the Church; as an action of the Holy Spirit; as an answer to the Church’s constant prayer; and as a “jealousy of error,” by which he meant a sensitivity to whether something fits or clashes with the lived experience of the community. This latter point is illustrated by the fact that often in the Church we may not know how to say rightly what we believe, but we certainly recognize when it is said wrongly. So we may not be able to explain precisely what we mean when we say there are three persons in God, but if someone were to maintain that it means that there are three Gods, we would immediately respond that such a position is false. This jealousy of error—the ability to recognize an inadequate formulation of the Church’s faith, this phronema—this basic direction of life and thought in the community, is the sensus fidelium that Newman regarded as absolutely central to the life of the Church. This continuing infallible presence of the Spirit guiding the life of the Church is the real gift of infallibility in the Church. That was why Newman had little difficulty in accepting the teaching on papal infallibility of Vatican I, although he thought that it was ill-timed and not especially well stated in the council’s formulation. Vatican I, in its definition of papal infallibility, defines that, under certain conditions, the bishop of Rome is endowed with that infallibility with which Christ willed that his Church be endowed. So infallibility is not a personal possession of the bishops of Rome. Rather, they possess the charism of infallibility because they speak in the name of the Church, the whole people of God, which is the primary recipient of the charism.
—Rev. Michael J. Himes, “What Can We Learn from the Church in the Nineteenth Century?” The Catholic Church in the 21st Century: Finding Hope for Its Future in the Wisdom of Its Past, edited by Rev. Michael J. Himes, introduction by Richard W. Miller II (Liguori, Missouri: Liguori, 2004), pages 72-73
Cardinal Henry Newman’s ideas about reception were developed in Vatican II. See:
It was the Second Vatican Council, of which he is often called “the Father”, that finally vindicated his theology. The late Cardinal Avery Dulles called him the most seminal Catholic theologian of the 19th century. His classic Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), which fell under the suspicion of the two leading Roman theologians of the day, is the starting-point for modern Catholic theology of development.
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/father-of-vatican-ii-5699
—Ian Ker, “The Father of Vatican II,” EWTN.com, taken from L’Osservatore Romano, 22 July 2009, page 7
To be continued 2
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THE DOOR TO REFORM
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Vatican II. The council’s focus on what the Church itself was and how it related to the larger world necessarily involved a deeper appreciation of all believers in the Church. The laity in particular needed to be reminded of their inherent dignity and of their contribution to the building up of God’s kingdom. The council spoke of all the faithful participating in the offices of Christ as prophet, priest, and king. Baptism into Christ means that each believer can claim to exercise these offices. The council also spoke of the Holy Spirit imparting the gift of faith and bestowing charisms on each Christian. A positive, active, and dynamic understanding of the believer emerged. The teaching of the sensus fidelium in particular helped clarify the prophetic duty of the believer to proclaim the word of God. The laity were challenged to deepen their understanding of the faith by prayer, study, discussion, and committed action. The ambit of their intellectual penetration is not restricted solely to secular matters, though there obviously the laity have [a special] contribution to make and in such matters they speak with particular authority. On matters of faith and morals, too, they are called to fulfil their prophetic task in communion with their leaders.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sensus-fidelium
—J. J. Burkhard, “Sensus Fidelium,” Encyclopedia.com
The Church is not fundamentally an institution, exercising teaching authority from the top down. The Holy Spirit is active in the whole Church, not just in the hierarchy. The doctrine of the sensus fidelium (“sense of the faithful”) shows that the Church’s doctrines and dogmas emerge out of the faith of the entire Church. The formulation of doctrine is not based on a majority opinion, but emerges out of a consensus, which under the guidance of the Holy Spirit embraces both pastors and laity (Lumen Gentium 12).
The ecclesial practice of “reception” of doctrine is further evidence of a mutuality or interdependence between hierarchical authority and the body of the faithful in the formulation of doctrine, leading occasionally to the modification or revision of the teachings of the ordinary papal magisterium. For example, Pius XII’s exclusive identification of the Catholic Church with the mystical body of Christ in his encyclical Mystici corporis was changed by the Second Vatican Council; the council said that the Church of Christ “subsists in” rather than “is” the Roman Catholic Church, as the original draft had stated (Lumen Gentium 8). [See Francis A. Sullivan, The Church We Believe In: One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (New York: Paulist, 1988), 22-33] The development and formulation of doctrine is always a complex process involving the work of theologians, the sense of the faithful, the process of reception, and the authoritative teaching of the Church’s bishops. To believe that Christian truth is discerned simply by magisterial pronouncement without taking this complex process into account is a variety of the papal fundamentalism mentioned above.
—Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., Catholicism in the Third Millennium, second edition (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2003), pages 52-53
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-doctrine-of-reception.html
Calls for the reform of Opus Dei represent a type of reception. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.
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Lumen Gentium, 12
DeleteThe holy people of God shares also in Christ’s prophetic office; it spreads abroad a living witness to Him, especially by means of a life of faith and charity and by offering to God a sacrifice of praise, the tribute of lips which give praise to His name. (110) The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, (111) cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples’ supernatural discernment in matters of faith when “from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful” (8*) they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. That discernment in matters of faith is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth. It is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful obedience to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men but truly the word of God. (112) Through it, the people of God adheres unwaveringly to the faith given once and for all to the saints, (113) penetrates it more deeply with right thinking, and applies it more fully in its life.
Notes
(110) Cf. Heb. 13:15.
(111) Cf. Jn. 2:20, 27
(112) Cf. 1 Thess. 2:13.
(113) Cf. Jud. 3
Supplementary Notes
(8*) Cfr. Leo XIII, Epist. Encycl Divinum illud, 9 maii 1897: AAS 29 (1896-97) p. 6S0. Pius XII, Litt Encyl. Mystici Corporis, 1. c., pp 219-220; Denz. 2288 (3808).S. Augustinus, Serm. 268, 2: PL 38 232, ct alibi. S. Io. Chrysostomus n Eph. Hom. 9, 3: PG 62, 72. idymus Alex., Trin. 2, 1: PG 39 49 s. S. Thomas, In Col. 1, 18 cet. 5 ed. Marietti, II, n. 46-Sieut constituitur unum eorpus ex nitate animae, ita Ecelesia ex unil atc Spiritus...
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[Correction] Cardinal John Henry Newman expounded the doctrine of reception in his 1859 essay,...
Delete[Correction] Cardinal John Henry Newman’s ideas about reception were developed in Vatican II.
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