How I Left the Opus Dei

I was a member of Opus Dei. I was recruited as a child and was coerced into joining after being pestered and repeatedly told I had a vocation. A vocation to OD does NOT exist as has been determined by the Pope repeatedly. This documentary is 100 percent true.

Any comments to the contry are from Opus Dei themselves and their diehard followers. It is inevitable that they would try to invalidate the experience of these women and it is also inevitable that they would dig in to 'protect' their institution. An institution that they in fact and in reality do not even belong to but have nevertheless given many years and an awful lot of money to. As always the voices of the victims are being drowned out by the abusers and those who benefit from their exploitation.

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.

If part of the house is on fire, do you call the fire department or say that the rest of the house is not burning? ->For those who think that you need to see the rest of the OD's activities, mainly these are supernumeraries (including my parents) who raise their children on 'perfect OD material' that destroys their spiritual life. It's not their fault, they're being manipulated too much, which is a scary situation.

It's important to read the official statement of the OD on the documentary before reading the 1/10 comments. You will see then that every negative comment brings nothing new, it is a copy of this statement, which further emphasizes how strong manipulation, thought control and lack of permission for any criticism of the organization are. Most likely, these people did not even see the documentary, because it is discouraged them (behavior control).

It is necessary to make it clear that this group is destructive.

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.

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.