El minuto heroico: Yo también dejé el Opus Dei

This series is a mandatory watch for anyone in Spain. The fact that it has been review-bombed is everything you need to know about how well it reflects the madness of such an evilly misogynistic, racist and classist group of people.

The (still unfinished at the time of the writing of this review) series follow the journey of a group of former opus dei women through a well executed reenacting of the key events that defined their experiences inside the sect.

Then interviews with the former members are raw and manage to showcase the strength, courage and intelligence of these women and build a close relationship with the viewer, who can't help but to feel for them.

The documentary also succeeds at building a good image of what is the Opus Dei, where does it come from and what are their main incentives and goals.

Congratulations to everyone involved in making this piece a reality and hoping it reaches as many people as possible.

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.

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.

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 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.