El minuto heroico: Yo también dejé el Opus Dei

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.

I also left Opus Dei in the second decade of this century.

The docuseries says exactly what I lived through, what we all lived through, in its first few episodes. It's 100% real. So real that it hurts. So real that it makes you want to stop the playback, open the window, and scream: Why do they do things so wrong in that institution???

J. K. Rowling's latest book, The Running Grave, addresses precisely the actions and consequences of religious cult groups. Setting aside the plot elements related to a detective novel, the methods of recruitment, the processes of persuasion, indoctrination, guilt-tripping, idealization of the leader, member categories, exhausting pace of life, money management, etc., couldn't help but remind me over and over again of what I experienced inside Opus Dei. Terrible.

This series is not a Rowling novel (written under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith), but a documentary about my life and the lives of thousands and thousands of us who also left Opus Dei under threats of eternal damnation. Moreover, in my case, when I said I was leaving for good, they tried to convince me that I was mentally unstable (something my psychologist and psychiatrist firmly denied) and that I needed to take pills. Thank God I had the sense to say, "The problem is yours, not mine."

Additionally, the docuseries is very well made, with a great pace. Thank you for remembering the thousands of victims of this institution that does not deserve to take God's name in vain.

The HEROIC MINUTE docuseries manifests through the testimony of 13 women in a real and respectful way the dramatic part that many of us experience within Opus Dei. In just two days after the first two chapters of this docuseries appeared on MAX, I have heard comments from other women who belonged to the institution who agreed that the way these testimonies are presented is true to reality and that we feel represented in the voice of those thirteen who bravely appear.

What the protagonists narrate are testimonies of facts that the institution continues to deny in the face of public opinion and interpret in the face of its members in a misleading way as something spiritual because they do not want to show that many founding teachings and practices that have been developed in these almost one hundred years are abusive and violate fundamental human rights. That is why something extremely enriching in the series is the intervention of people outside the Opus who explain from psychology the way in which coercive groups or sectarian aberrations function, as well as the damage and consequences.

It strikes me that the reviews or comments against are practically the same and above all, solid arguments are missing. The common denominator of these criticisms is: 1) That there is a lack of research, for this I recommend seeing the previous interviews with the director of the series where she narrates the work behind the docuseries as well as the reasons that led her to work on it, an investigation of at least 4 years, many hours of listening to diverse testimonies not only of the 13 that appear in the series. There are also 2 investigative journalists who have done in-depth work on a book and several reports in prestigious media, so their argument of lack of investigation seems unfounded to me.

2) Some comments against the series ask for verifiable data from official documents, I don't know if they wrote without seeing it or if they fell asleep at the moments when in the same series texts from Opus documents are read that show that the praxis of what those 13 women and so many of us live are real.

3) It states that there is no concrete evidence, but we know that there are several complaints before the Vatican, not only from former members but from current members, a criminal process in Argentina where at least 4 priests are involved, more than 25,000 testimonies on the Opus Libros platform, and many more testimonies in programs such as Ágora Colloquios on YouTube. It would seem that where the desire to investigate has been lacking has been on the part of the current members.

4) They minimize the testimonies because they are emotional as if that detracts from the veracity of the facts.

5) They mention that they do not invite discussion or show alternative points of view when they did not accept the right of reply, both the headquarters and the spokespersons did not respond to the invitation from the director and producer of the series.

I am aware that the Opus is circulating messages inviting people not to watch the series, thus reinforcing that what the Opus constantly seeks is to manipulate, direct and manage the conscience and lives of the people who are still there.

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.

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.