For decades, the shadowy Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei has recruited poor, rural girls in Argentina on the promise of education and a better life. Instead, they have ended up working for years with no pay and found themselves unable to retire when they age — even when they suffer serious health problems.

Over the years, several of them have filed legal complaints — but none have prospered. Then, in September 2024, Argentine federal prosecutors handed down a bombshell indictment accusing high-ranking members of the Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei of human trafficking and slave labor. It is the first time an organization within the Catholic Church has faced accusations of this magnitude.

Although there are 44 cases cited in the investigation, only four are included in the human trafficking indictment because most occurred before Argentina’s human trafficking law went into force in May 2008. Due to statutory limitations, three may soon be out of time.

The Herald spoke to Paula Bistagnino (pictured), an investigative journalist and author whose work was cited in the judicial proceedings, about the inner workings of the highly insular and influential institution. Bistagnino went into the details of the Opus Dei, how the charges came about, and the importance of the indictment.

For many international readers, the words “Opus Dei” might be reminiscent of a Dan Brown novel or conspiracy fodder. Could you explain what the Opus Dei is?

It’s the Catholic church’s only prelature [ecclesiastical jurisdiction] that’s allowed to function autonomously. It has a pretty secretive operation with very rigorous practices imposed on its lay members, who are called “numeraries.” These include self-flagellation, vows of chastity and poverty, and obedience. They have super strict everyday rules, including “mortifications” and sacrifices with intense spiritual control. It operates within a hierarchy that practically doesn’t allow members to make decisions for themselves. 

When you hear about it, it sounds anachronistic, out of our time, right? But it’s being upheld, it’s outlined in their internal statutes. Even Opus Dei members in Spain have denounced that those statutes are different from those they present to the Catholic Church. It’s not exactly two-faced but there’s at least a hidden face to the organization, clearly. Dan Brown is literature, fiction, but there are elements that are true.

What exactly has the Argentine judiciary presented against the Opus Dei? 

This is a judicial case that stemmed from an individual criminal complaint from a lawyer who read media coverage of the Opus Dei. He filed a complaint with the state anti-trafficking agency, PROTEX. Through the women involved and multiple witnesses, PROTEX can depict a system of recruitment, capture, and exploitation. In the end, there are 44 cases of women who were subjected to this between the 1980s and 2015. The complaint was filed in the federal judiciary, which continued the investigation alongside Procuraduría. 

Based on that, we get the accusation against Opus Dei’s maximum authorities of human trafficking and labor exploitation over the past 40 years. Most of the Opus Dei consists of laypeople, but its upper echelons are religious: five priests who led the organization over the years stand accused. Four were regional vicars, the maximum authority of the region (in this case, Rio de la Plata), and one was in charge of the feminine branch. 

What we have now isn’t just a complaint, it’s an indictment based on the investigation. The prosecutor’s office handed it over to Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas, who’s asking for a few additional measures before summoning these religious authorities to testify and explain how this system works. 

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Why is this indictment significant?

It’s the first time the Catholic church has been accused of having an organization within it commit the crime of human trafficking — well, women specifically — and it’s the first mass complaint case against the Opus Dei for such serious crimes in its almost 100 years of existence. There have also been cases against individuals or civil associations linked to it, but never against its senior leaders.

There have been smaller complaints but they didn’t go anywhere. That a case of this scale and seriousness is making its way through the courts is truly historic. 

Why was there such secrecy around the investigation? 

It was fundamental that PROTEX works with its usual secrecy because it is about human trafficking. But there’s always that risk of it being leaked, particularly when you are investigating a powerful organization with access to the judiciary. Many of these women were contacted by the organization to discourage them from filing their complaints. If the case had come to light, Opus Dei’s habit of trying to annul the testimonies or frighten them out of going through with their case would have been a higher risk. The closed-off houses of the Opus Dei were also monitored successfully without the organization knowing about it because of that secrecy.

Are the four cases being used to prosecute the Opus Dei related to assistant numeraries? Who are they?

Yes. The four of them were taken as children and cleaned houses. There are many Opus Dei categories, but you basically have priests and numeraries. Numeraries are lay members who make vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, self-flagellate, and submit to a very strict spiritual discipline of meeting everyday rituals. There are like 20 everyday rituals of obeisance and you sign a document to enter the organization.

Then the organization incorporated a lower category, “assistant numeraries” — basically for poor women taken from their families, a category that implied being servants to numeraries for life. The organization has dedicated itself to finding such people in every country it’s in. Why? Because they wouldn’t hire just anyone. It’s a closed-off, highly hermetic institution. They needed people inside who wouldn’t get out, who wouldn’t be able to talk about what was going on within.

How were these girls taken from their families and placed within the Opus Dei?

There are cases of girls from the age of 12. In Argentina, a well-known Opus Dei school opened in the 1970s in Bellavista, where I lived. These girls who lived in very poor, rural areas in large families far away from cities were scouted, and their parents [were told the girls would have] access to a Catholic school and a profession in hospitality, saying they would be able to have a job and a better future. With that ruse, they were taken far away from their homes. That’s what the judicial investigation is set to prove. Once they were at the school, it was like an internment camp thousands of kilometers away from their families, with communications cut off — coming from poverty, they often didn’t have access to a telephone. We’re talking from the 1970s and into the 2000s. Once there, the schools would start coercing them into believing that they had the “vocation to serve” and had to enter the Opus Dei.

“…there are still women entering the organization in those conditions, they’re still Opus Dei servants, and although they’ve changed some of the rules, the process is the same.”

Have the Opus Dei or more mainstream Catholic organizations responded to the new investigation?

They’ve published a communiqué denying the accusations publicly. They always publish communiqués denying everything, mostly because they’re for their followers — they’re seeing headlines with strong accusations, they publish a communiqué. 

And I think it’s too soon, but the Vatican hasn’t taken any measures, not even when the women made their case to the Pope in 2021. The first thing they did was go to the press and make their case at the Vatican. That got no answer, although Pope Francis did later make some moves to limit the Opus Dei’s authority, like calling for a change in its statutes. But he didn’t formally say he was responding to the presentation.  

What would you want to see happen next?

Every woman I’ve interviewed over the years has said she wanted justice. Although they’ve changed some things, there are still women entering the organization in those conditions, they’re still Opus Dei servants, and although they’ve changed some of the rules, the process is the same. 

I think it’s important that this judicial case keeps growing across the region because these weren’t the only women affected. This happened all over Latin America, in Europe, and beyond. There are testimonies in Spain and in Ireland, where a case is also being opened. Right now, it may seem like a small group in Argentina was doing this, but it was part of a systematic working matrix by the organization across the world.

What would you say to Opus Dei authorities if you could?

They have the opportunity to repair the damage that they caused to many people who trusted them and also worked for them. When Opus Dei responds they say these women were “part of the family.” Instead of denying it the way they have and even putting them down, accusing these women of lying, they could ask for forgiveness, implement reparations, and change their operating model. 

In any case, that’s what I said before this indictment in the judiciary. Now, they have to answer the summons, and the justice system will decide.

Cover photo by Alejandra López