Opus Dei

Opus Dei, Roman Catholic organization whose members seek personal Christian perfection and strive to implement Christian ideals and values in their occupations and in society as a whole. Its name, which means “Work of God” in Latin, stems from the organization’s emphasis on achieving holiness through mundane everyday work rather than through prayer or spiritual discipline alone. Its members include both laypeople and clergy.

Theologically conservative, Opus Dei accepts the teaching authority of the Catholic Church without question and has long been the subject of controversy. It has been accused of secrecy, cultlike practices such as brainwashing, and political ambitions to ally with conservative governments and support right-wing causes. Opus Dei is also sometimes confused with being a sect or a religious order (i.e., a group in which all members take formal vows), although it is neither of those things. In the early 21st century the organization remained in good standing with the church. However, there was some evidence, especially during the reign of Pope Francis (2013–25), to suggest that the Vatican was taking seriously the allegations against the group.

History and organization

Opus Dei was founded in 1928 in Spain by Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás, a priest trained in law. Believing that daily life can be sanctifying, Escrivá sought to encourage Catholic laymen in their pursuit of holiness through their chosen professions. A women’s branch was created in 1930, and a body for priests (the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross) was formed in 1943. Opus Dei was formally approved by the Holy See in 1950 as a secular institute, a new form of religious association whose members “profess the evangelical counsels in secular life.” Escrivá died in 1975, by which time the organization’s members numbered some 60,000 in 80 countries.

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On November 28, 1982, Pope John Paul II, a staunch supporter of Opus Dei, established it as the first personal prelature in the church, with jurisdiction over people rather than a geographic area, as in a diocese. Essentially, this allows the organization to operate in any community throughout the world. Since then the organization has been headed by a prelate who is elected by its members and approved by the pope. The prelate can establish seminaries and promote students to holy orders, but the organization remains subject to some oversight by local bishops.

Escrivá was canonized (declared a saint) in 2002 by John Paul II. By this time allegations of abuse and political manipulation involving the group had begun to attract attention in both secular and religious media. Perhaps in response to the controversy, Pope Francis issued a motu proprio in 2022 that transferred Opus Dei’s oversight from the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops to the Dicastery for the Clergy. He also decreed that the head of the organization cannot be made a bishop, explaining that this change was to strengthen and protect the group’s spiritual mission (charism): “A form of government based on charism more than on hierarchical authority is needed.” Opus Dei must also submit an annual report to the Vatican rather than one every five years, as was the previous rule.

The following year Francis formalized these changes in the Code of Canon Law. His actions were criticized by some as being antagonistic toward the organization, but Opus Dei’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, released a statement assuring that the society had accepted these changes “with sincere filial obedience” and that its leadership was working with the Vatican on implementing them.

Membership and activities

Opus Dei originally encouraged new members to take a privately recognized vow of obedience, poverty, and chastity. Since the organization became a prelature, however, it has required only a contractual commitment to receive spiritual formation, which includes weekly classes (“circles”) and an annual religious retreat, among other activities. Some members practice self-sacrifice, which can include fasting and abstinence from certain pleasures. Self-mortification, such as the wearing of a cilice (which often takes the form of a spiked chain worn around the upper thigh), is not discouraged. New members serve a period of probation, which lasts at least five years, before they are fully admitted.

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Some members of Opus Dei, called numeraries, devote much of their time to the organization. Like priests, they are required to remain unmarried and celibate, but they live in the world and pursue secular occupations. The majority of members, however, are supernumeraries, who are free to marry, contribute financially to Opus Dei, and demonstrate Christian virtue in their daily activities. The group is also financially assisted by cooperators, who are not members and, by permission of the Holy See, need not be Christians. Ordained priests constitute only a tiny percentage of the organization; in 2021 they numbered some 2,000 of the almost 94,000 members of Opus Dei worldwide.

The organization has established vocational, trade, home-arts, and agricultural centers in various parts of the world, numerous high schools, schools of business administration, and charitable activities. Opus Dei also founded and endowed (with government assistance) the University of Navarra, which is regarded by many as Spain’s finest university, and operates the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and the University of Piura in Peru.

Controversies

Opus Dei has long been accused of collaborating with political groups to support conservative or right-wing causes. Because the organization included many highly educated people, Spain’s leader Generalissimo Francisco Franco involved several of its members in instituting economic reform in 1956, and among his ministers were members of Opus Dei. This led many to speculate that the group had political and economic ambitions, though Opus Dei’s influence waned in Spain as other groups entered the political arena after Franco’s death in 1975. However, in his book Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church (2024), financial journalist Gareth Gore claimed that Opus Dei had a hand in the collapse of Spain’s Banco Popular in 2017. He alleged that many of the bank’s leaders and shareholders, including its chair, were members of the group and had siphoned funds to support the organization. Opus Dei denied Gore’s claims.

In the United States Opus Dei is said to have influenced the policies of Project 2025, a set of conservative to ultraconservative recommendations regarding U.S. government structure and policy that included a plan of action to implement them. The plan was designed by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank whose president at the time, Kevin Roberts, is an alleged member of Opus Dei.

Meanwhile, in the 2020s Argentina’s government began investigating allegations by dozens of women and girls that Opus Dei had trafficked them and forced them to work as “numerary assistants,” or unpaid domestic servants.

Among the other charges often leveled against the organization are aggressive recruiting practices, the brainwashing of new recruits, and the isolation of members from their families. Membership is usually kept secret, which has fueled allegations that the group operates as a cult or elite secret society. This view was also fueled in part by the popularity of novelist Dan Brown’s best-selling mystery The Da Vinci Code (2003), which portrays the organization as a society rife with ultraconservative members promoting arcane and dangerous beliefs. Pointing to its continued growth and membership that has included people of various social classes, Opus Dei denied these accusations.