He spent years investigating Opus Dei, a Catholic group accused of a vast conspiracy of abuse. Then Pope Leo asked to me

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/06/opus-dei-gareth-gore-pope-leo

He spent years investigating Opus Dei, a Catholic group accused of a vast conspiracy of abuse. Then Pope Leo asked to meet

Gareth Gore’s 2024 book Opus alleges decades of manipulation, which the group has denied. He believes the pope wanted to send a clear message

Sam Wolfson
Mon 6 Apr 2026 07.00 EDT

…

Gore’s book lays out claims the organisation is at the heart of a conspiracy involving child grooming, human trafficking, and psychological and emotional control, with former members saying the group used private confessions as leverage against members and drugged those under its sway – claims Opus Dei categorically denies. Gore reported that Opus Dei collaborated closely with the bloody dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain, before supporting rightwing causes around the world.
…

In places like Washington, [Opus Dei has] made a real concerted effort to infiltrate the corridors of power and has been immensely successful. I would argue that today, Opus Dei within the Maga Republican movement is one of the pre-eminent forces. There are several very high-ranking figures inside the White House and the wider Maga ecosystem who are either full-on members of Opus Dei or big supporters. People like Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation [and the force behind Project 2025], is a regular at the Opus Dei centre in central DC and gets his spiritual direction from them. You’ve got Leonard Leo, who helped to orchestrate the conservative takeover of the supreme court and sits on the board of the Opus Dei centre in central Washington. The list goes on.

This is a group that is by invitation only and they target the elites: politicians, judges, business people, journalists, academics.

What’s ironic is that you have the leader of the Catholic church speaking out against war and against the way that immigrants are being treated. That shows this co-option of the Christian identity by Opus Dei to be a complete fallacy; it’s all for political expediency. It’s about these people’s own deeply authoritarian and conservative views about how the world should be run.

//

… collapse of Banco Popular, one of Spain’s largest banks as opus atm … founded on a vision like most cults … more …

Also

Opus Dei: the CULT of dark money - a conversation with author Gareth Gore | Opus Dei Deep Dive

https://m.

&ra=m

And

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com › book › show › 207595616-opus

Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Ri...

Drawing on unparalleled access to bank records, insider accounts, and exclusive interviews with whistle-blowers from within Opus Dei, Gore reveals …

[yellow dahlia]

1. Thanks for sharing this. The idea that things like Opus Dei exist gives me chills.

[cbabe]

2. Makes me wonder about jd vance's catholic conversion.

[yellow dahlia]

7. Ah - interesting point.

[mopinko]

3. if he does something about these pedos,

i’ll get on the leo train.

[cbabe]

4. I'm confused. Opus Dei and Catholic Church are pedos.

[mopinko]

5. my main beef w francis was

he did nothing about the pedos. yes, the catholic church is full of them. the more ‘catholic’ the more pedos.

[cbabe]

6. Oh. Gotcha. Pope Leo not Leonard Leo.

[FakeNoose]

8. Gareth Gore's substack: "My audience with Pope Leo"

Interesting reading ....

Link: https://garethgore.substack.com/p/my-audience-with-pope-leo

Small excerpt:

... On the morning of March 16, I presented myself to the Swiss Guards outside the main entrance to the Apostolic Palace – and showed them my invitation and passport. I had flown in from my home in London the previous evening. They ushered into the pontifical palace and into a wood-panelled elevator. After that I was taken through various ornate rooms to a first waiting area – and then to a second, where I was told to leave my phone. After a short while I was taken into the private library, where the Pope posed for pictures with me – and congratulated me on my book, which he called a “rigorous piece of work”. We then sat down and began our conversation.

Anyone who has read my Substack before will know how critical I have been about the way that the Catholic Church has handled – or more accurately mishandled – decades of abuse allegations made against Opus Dei. The group has been accused of long list of misdeeds: of grooming children, of trafficking and enslaving young girls, and drugging members to hide the mental health epidemic within its ranks. It is also accused of breaking the seal of the confessional and using “spiritual guidance” sessions to collect information about its members so that it can manipulate them into serving its own interests. There are literally hundreds of testimonies from victims online, on websites such as OpusLibros.org and Reddit.

... [snip] ...

I’m not going to go into detail about what the Pope told me, or what questions he asked – I will leave it to the Vatican to decide what it wants to say about the meeting. But I’m very happy to talk about what I said in the meeting and what information I provided to him. I believe such transparency is important: not only does it offer hope to Opus Dei’s many victims that these allegations are now being heard – but, perhaps even more importantly, it creates a public record of what the Pope and wider Vatican are now aware of. By putting on record what information I shared with the Pope in the meeting, nobody can now turn around and say: well, we didn’t know.

I spoke at length about what former members had told me about the way that Opus Dei operates: about how the group abuses the legitimacy conferred upon it by the Catholic Church to lure unsuspecting victims into its clutches. I detailed allegations about how the group actively targets young children, how it grooms and manipulates them into a lifelong commitment to serving its interests from the tender age of ten or eleven – without their parents ever being consulted. I shared testimonies and documents backing this up and offered to connect the Vatican with people who were involved in such grooming who will testify to these allegations.

- more at link -

Recommended!