‘Opus’: Prelature describes author’s depiction of events as ‘absolute nonsense’

A new book accusing Opus Dei of dealing in human trafficking, forced labor as well as financial malfeasance by members who held powerful positions in a prominent Spanish bank is “absolute nonsense,” according to the organization.

Opus Dei says it never hid facts from the writer and chose full transparency, only for the author to decide to follow “his own narrative” instead of facts.

The book, titled “Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church,” was written by financial journalist Gareth Gore and was released in the United States Oct. 1.

Following the announcement of the book by publisher Simon & Schuster, Opus Dei released a statement April 30 saying that the accusations of human trafficking, theft and political conspiracy alleged in Gore’s book were “absolutely false.”

Opus Dei said it answered questions from Gore and facilitated contact “with people in London, Madrid, Rome, New York, Buenos Aires and elsewhere, responding to his requests for information and interest in specific topics.”

“We regret that the publicity now being put out by the publisher is more typical of a book of conspiracy theories and forced speculation than of the rigorous research we understood the author intended to carry out,” the statement read.

Of the many movements, groups and ecclesial realities within the Catholic Church, few have captured global attention, both positive and negative, like Opus Dei.

Founded in 1928 by St. Josemaría Escrivá, Opus Dei (Latin for “Work of God”) centers on attaining holiness through ordinary life. In 1982, St. John Paul II designated Opus Dei as a personal prelature, a canonical structure comprised of both laity and clergy, and it is the only group in the church with such a distinction.

According to Opus Dei, in 2023, the prelature was comprised of an estimated 93,784 people, 2,106 of whom are priests. Of the total number of members, 57 percent are women and 43 precent men.

Despite its growth, as well as gaining the admiration of several pontiffs throughout the years, the prelature has also been at the center of controversies amid speculation about its internal workings, which have been often deemed secretive. It has also faced accusations of sexual abuse and abuse of power, along with its alleged support of the right-wing dictatorship of Spanish General Francisco Franco.

Those controversies gained prominence following the release of Dan Brown’s controversial fiction novel “The Da Vinci Code” and the movie based on the book starring Tom Hanks, which featured a devious plot involving Opus Dei.

Nevertheless, the new book’s author told OSV News Sept. 25 that he “never set out to write a book about Opus Dei.” What began as a magazine report on the 2017 collapse of Spain’s Banco Popular, he said, led him to “a completely unexpected story.”

“I simply followed the money and soon found myself in the middle of a completely unexpected story — a real-life conspiracy that for decades had remained hidden in plain sight, involving billions of dollars that had been siphoned from the bank to fund Opus Dei’s expansion to every corner of the globe,” Gore said.

But for Opus Dei, the story Gore captured is much more than a twisted mirror — it’s “gravely calumnious” — the organization said.

A significant portion of the book revolved around the life of Luis Valls Taberner, a member of Opus Dei who served as president of Banco Popular from 1972-2004. At its height, Banco Popular was Spain’s fifth largest bank before its collapse.

Among the allegations made in the book is that Valls Taberner, and other Banco Popular executives who belonged to Opus Dei, placed the prelature’s interests ahead of the bank, ultimately leading to its downfall.

In “Opus,” Gore told OSV News, he argued that the bank’s structure and its funneling of money to Opus Dei-linked charities and foundations “were a severe constraint on the bank as it struggled to fight for its life and contributed to the eventual collapse of the bank.”

In his life, Valls Taberner created three charitable foundations: Fundación Hispanica, Fomento de Fundaciones and Fundación Patronato Universitario.

In an interview with OSV News Oct. 4, Yago de la Cierva, spokesperson for the three charities, took issue with the accusations made in Gore’s book, including that he was essentially stealing money from Banco Popular to give to Opus Dei.

“This is completely false,” de la Cierva said. “Luis Valls was an excellent banker, which means that he was always respecting the interest of the shareholders, the interests of the employees, and the interests of the clients.”

He also said that donations made to the foundations were “personal donations” and that “board members renounced being paid and asked the bank to pass their own money to the foundations.”

De la Cierva also countered the negative portrayal in the book of contributions to Opus Dei from its members, likening it to alumni from Harvard or Princeton “who give a lot of money to their alma mater.”

“Opus Dei members can give whatever they want to any cause and it’s not suspicious that an Opus Dei member helps an Opus Dei institution, or initiatives, or schools or residences,” he said.

Valls Taberner’s portrayal in the book, the spokesman noted, was that of “a weak person (who was) very easily manipulated by Opus Dei.” De la Cierva, who knew Taberner personally, said the banker was “exactly the opposite.”

Taberner, he continued, “was completely open-minded,” a man of personal integrity and honesty, who would personally pick up the phone with complaints from clients of his bank, to know what could be improved in the institution he ran.

“The problem with the book is that we introduced him (Gore) to many direct witnesses and he discarded every single witness when it didn’t go with his narrative,” de la Cierva said. “This is why I say it is biased and sectarian.”

According to the spokesman, the people interviewed by the author “called the foundation saying, ‘I heard that this book is against Luis Valls but he (Gore) told me it was a biography in order to praise” the banker.

“From an institutional point of view, it’s a break of trust,” de la Cierva said. “Someone introducing himself as a biographer and then doing the exact opposite — it’s really bad.”

“Personally, I think it is completely abusive to attack someone who cannot defend himself,” he said. “It’s nothing more than a character assassination.”

He also took issue with the insinuation that Taberner’s affiliation with Opus Dei, as well as those of Banco Popular executives, led to the bank’s collapse.

“Can we blame Luis Valls for the collapse of the bank?” he asked. “He died in 2006, but he resigned (as the bank’s president) in 2004, which is 13 years” before Banco Popular collapsed.

“The portrait that Gore is making of Luis Valls is abusive. It’s completely wrong,” he added.

In an Oct. 8 statement, the foundations linked to Valls Taberner said that “to criticize a banker for helping people in need instead of buying himself a yacht or a private plane is absolute nonsense,” adding, “To attribute to him the disappearance of the bank thirteen years after his leaving the presidency and eleven years after his death is not only absurd; it is also despicable.”

“The story of Luis Valls Taberner is a story of altruism, empathy and dedication,” the foundations stressed.

Jack Valero, the U.K. press officer for Opus Dei said he was struck by several allegations in the book, including Opus Dei’s connections with prominent American conservatives and “how evil they are and their program to take away hard-earned rights from people.”

One such connection mentioned at length is Leonard Leo, co-chairman of The Federalist Society and a conservative legal activist believed to be behind the nomination of several conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and who is affiliated with the Opus Dei-run Catholic Information Center in Washington.

Valero told OSV News Sept. 13 that the book was “awful” and said Gore “doesn’t actually say things very accurately.”

“None of the people in those groups that (Gore) mentioned are members of Opus Dei,” Valero said, “although some of them do go to the Catholic Information Center” for Mass or various events it hosts, “given its proximity to the U.S. Congress building.

Valero also said that due to the fact that Gore is “nonreligious,” it was hard for him to accept “that people join Opus Dei for religious reasons, to give themselves to God and to dedicate their lives because God calls them.”

In the book “there’s no other explanation for any action of Opus Dei members except money, control and recruitment,” Valero told OSV News.

Gore said the dismissal of his book on grounds that he did not understand the religious organization was dismissive to “more than a hundred victims I spoke to — many of whom have years of formal religious study, and several of whom are practicing Catholic priests.”

“It’s an attempt to dismiss these very serious allegations without actually engaging with any of the facts — it is lazy, and it is disrespectful to the victims,” he told OSV News.

Valero pointed out, however, that Gore’s interpretation of certain events, particularly his retelling of St. Escrivá’s arrival in Rome, is “a real parody of reality.”

For example, Valero said, upon arriving in Rome, “as soon as he (St. Escrivá) saw the terrace of the flat where they were staying was facing the Vatican and he could see the window of the pope, he was so moved by this that he started praying for the pope and stayed there praying for the pope all night.”

“But in Gore’s retelling,” Valero told OSV News, “he says that he (St. Escrivá) arrived in Rome, got to the flat, saw that he was opposite the Vatican and spent the night reflecting on how much power he had managed to obtain in less than 20 years. And I thought, ‘Wow, it’s so nasty, and so belittling, and retelling every story of the founder’s life … (it’s) very sad.'”

Gore downplayed Opus Dei’s accusations of “grave falsehoods” in the book and said the organization should “actually engage with the shocking allegations of abuse and manipulation detailed in the book.”

The book detailed allegations made publicly by former members, particularly assistant numeraries, a women’s branch within the prelature that primarily attends to the domestic needs, including cooking and cleaning, of Opus Dei centers for both men and women.

Valero acknowledged that “there have been cases of abuse that relate to members of Opus Dei in the last few years” and that the prelature has established mechanisms for current and former members to report to their safeguarding office and the police.

However, Valero told OSV News he took issue with Gore’s depiction of Opus Dei as “this nasty organization, riddled with sexual abuse.”

“In fact, there are only four or five cases,” he said. “The thing is, they’re just mixed up with so much fiction that it is hard to tell what is fact and what is fiction now.”

Gore dismissed Valero’s opinion on the book, noting that it included “more than 100 pages of endnotes detailing my sources” and that it was “easy to tell the difference between what is fact and what is fiction.”

Foundations close to banker Valls Taberner said however “the author has decided to discard all the good facts and episodes that many witnesses have told him, and publish only the voices of the few but inevitable critics that any public figure may have,” voicing concerns about Opus Dei, the instances described in the book are “absolute nonsense.”

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