How I Left the 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.