El minuto heroico: Yo también dejé el Opus Dei

For those who don't believe the story, or who claim that this is ancient history, and Opus Dei has stopped these spiritually, financially and physically abusive practices, take a look at their own website. Got to their site, opus dei dot org, and search for "junior candidate."

The article you'll find is from 2024, and was a PR effort on their part to preempt the worst of Gareth Gore's reporting in his book, Opus. And in this article, they openly state that they are still actively recruiting children as young as 14 1/2, and good parents will turn their children over to Opus Dei joyfully.

This documentary shows exactly how that recruitment takes place, and parents-even those who find OD's activities helpful for themselves-would be wise to watch with an open mind.

The only people hating on this film are in or involved with Opus Dei. They have their bias. Meanwhile, people who escaped Opus Dei know all too well how true these stories are. Let the public beware: Opus Dei is a dangerous high demand religion that has destroyed the lives of thousands of ex members with little to no oversight by the Catholic Church. They want your children to make a vocational commitment as early as 14.5 years old and they LIE when they try to tell you people cannot join until they are adults. They are using half truths and your ignorance of their statutes and canon law to make you try to believe them. If you value your life and the lives of your loved ones you will Stay Away from Opus Dei.

My daughter was a numerary member of Opus Dei for many years. During those years, we lost her as a family. It was like having a ghost. She stopped being cheerful, going to the countryside, riding horses, or participating in family gatherings. She didn't even want to attend her high school graduation party. Now I realize that she had been "abducted," and it wasn't so easy for her to see that she was being slowly manipulated within a strange, Spanish, shadowy group. Later, I tried to understand her, but it always felt like dealing with someone who was no longer my daughter: she was a stranger, who only occasionally shared new and strange things that had nothing to do with our family or traditions. I remember clearly telling her that one of the most notable aspects of Opus Dei was its opposition to "upward social mobility," because of its obsession with keeping maids as maids for life.

I was moved and frightened by the first two episodes of the series. The photography, framing, and camera work are excellent. The pacing and introduction of the people are also well done. I'm a visual artist, and I appreciate these details.

Also, what they show is too real. What the victims talk about (it's hard for me to call my daughter a victim too) is clearly a pattern that repeated itself in my daughter and in all the others who lived with her. Thank you for productions like this. I remember my daughter taking me to an Opus Dei center where she lived to watch a documentary about Opus Dei that reminded me of the propaganda productions of the Third Reich. The things one does for their children! But today, the documentary genre redeems itself with this production.

I have also left Opus Dei, although I am not a woman, but a man. I was interested in the documentary, because, although in many ways the lives of men and women coincide, women have had a much harder life, especially the assistant numeraries. And I really liked it. I find it very interesting and in line with the reality that I knew.

I am going to make three verifiable points -just look them up on the Internet- to understand what kind of organization Opus Dei is: (1) Nowhere in the Statutes of Opus Dei does it say that celibate members have to give all their money to Opus Dei.

(2) In the code of canon law it says that the principal duties of organic cooperators must be in the Statutes. And giving all your money is a very principal duty.

(3) All celibates of Opus Dei have given all their salary to Opus Dei, because they have been told that it was obligatory.

With these three points you can understand what these women say in the documentary. They have entered an organization where there are many good people who have entered because they have been told that what is done there comes directly from God, and they have been able to give their whole life to Him, whether or not they have left the organization. They have also been made to believe that those in charge of the organization have a direct line to God and that submission to their directives is to directly fulfill the will of God. The only way to fix this is for those in charge to seriously acknowledge their mistakes. And this documentary makes visible the consequences that these mistakes have had for the protagonists.

I was also recruited as a young teenager to Opus Dei, and spent 12 years in the organization. This documentary series is absolutely accurate, so accurate that it could have been about my own life. I remember having to study chemistry on the bus commuting to and from the university. I also remember not having cash to buy something to eat during the day. I remember having to clean the men's houses and thinking to myself- why wouldn't they be able to do this themselves? Watching the documentary has re-opened my eyes to the extent of the psychological abuses. Thank you for shining a light on the realities of Opus Dei.