Head of Opus Dei says prelature is undertaking ‘process of healing’

Msgr. Ocáriz sees hope for the future of the prelature, as it undergoes canonical reform

The prelate of Opus Dei said he wants to help bring healing to anyone who has been hurt by the prelature, while four members are facing investigations over human trafficking allegations in Argentina.  

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz in a meeting with members of Opus Dei. Courtesy: Office of Communications of Opus Dei.

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz said Opus Dei created a listening commission after 43 former numerary assistants in Argentina denounced the prelature in 2021 for poor working conditions and unpaid salaries. The Argentinian attorney general’s office is now investigating four priests of Opus Dei in Argentina over charges of human trafficking.

“We created the first office of healing and resolution to solve every individual conflict,” Ocáriz told The Pillar. “It was a cause for great joy for us to reach agreements with many people, which also helped us to offer a personal and concrete request for forgiveness.”

“The broad listening helped to relieve the pain of those who belonged to the institution for a while, or looked in it for help and accompaniment but could not find it. After this job, which is beginning a process of healing, we are creating similar procedures in other countries,” he added.

Ocáriz’s comments come as Opus Dei undergoes a process of canonical reform at the direction of Pope Francis.

The personal prelature — the only one of its kind in the Catholic Church — will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2028. Founded by St. Josemaria Escriva, the movement places an emphasis on the universal call to holiness, and the responsibility of laypeople to seek holiness in their ordinary lives.

In the last two years, Pope Francis has published two motu proprio documents initiating a canonical reform of Opus Dei.

The first, published in July 2022, stipulated that the prelature would be supervised by the Dicastery for Clergy rather than the Dicastery for Bishops and would need to submit a yearly report on its work, instead of a five-year report as it had previously done.

The document also stated that the prelate of Opus Dei should not be a bishop, as “a form of governance based on charism more than on hierarchical authority is needed” for Opus Dei.

The second motu proprio, published in August 2023, changed canon law to specify that personal prelatures would be “assimilated to public clerical associations of pontifical right with the faculty of incardinating clerics,” and that “the laity can dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of the personal prelature, but the manner of this organic cooperation and the main duties and rights connected with it shall be determined appropriately in the statutes.”

In other words, Opus Dei’s lay members — recognized as such by the organization’s statutes — will likely not be considered members of the prelature properly speaking, but simply “organic cooperators.”

The manner of cooperation and relationship to Opus Dei would be left to the prelature’s statutes, which are still under reform.

Some canonical scholars say the intended changes are appropriate for an ecclesiastical entity structured as a personal prelature. But the changes would be a seismic shift for the prelature, as the vast majority of the 90,000 individuals involved in its work are lay people. Only about 2% of its members are priests incardinated in the prelature.

Commenting on the reforms, Ocáriz lamented, “The law’s difficulty in framing new pastoral phenomena is evident. Maybe the protagonism the [Second Vatican] Council wished for the laity still has a long road ahead.”

“I can guarantee that the current modification of the statutes requested by the Holy Father is being conducted with the fundamental criterion of adjusting to the charism [of Opus Dei], which, today, in many places, is better understood and shared. Law, which is so necessary, follows life, follows the incarnated message, to support and give continuity to life,” he added.

Ocáriz during a pastoral trip to the city of Valencia, Spain. Courtesy of the Office of Communications of Opus Dei.

‘Opportunities for examination’

In addition to the criminal complaint by 43 former members in Argentina, Opus Dei - known by its members simply as “the Work” - has faced other challenges in recent years.

These include a dispute over its flagship shrine in Spain and claims of a systematic influence campaign meant to shape U.S. government policy.

Regarding these latter claims, Ocáriz said, “I cannot tell you much because it’s a fantasy.”

In September, New York Magazine published an article entitled “How Opus Dei Conquered D.C.,” claiming that Opus Dei “is focused on marshaling the people who have various forms of authority over the masses...to its various revanchist causes.”

The article says Opus Dei “targets, and attracts, people like Donald Trump’s current running mate, J.D. Vance, a convert to conservative Catholicism by way of Opus Dei–connected clergy and influencers.”

It claims that “numerary priests, affiliated converts, and their allies have worked in the courts and in league with non-Catholic ‘faith-based’ politicians to crush reproductive rights, oppose gay marriage, and bash down the wall between church and state through Congress and at the Supreme Court.”

For his part, Ocáriz called those claims “hypotheses and conspiracy theories,” and said they “mention people by name that, nevertheless, are not members of Opus Dei. I’m sure they all are fine Catholics, but [these outlets] simply manipulate the truth to try to involve an institution of the Church in political matters.”

“In Opus Dei, we don’t give advice or orders of a political nature of any kind to anyone: if anyone would do it, the rest of us would rebel against that. It’s contrary to our spirit. There are good Catholics that vote for different parties and candidates, according to their sensibility,” he argued.

Ocáriz said believes that some of these issues come from misunderstandings about the role of the laity in politics.

“In public matters, every Christian has the responsibility to form their conscience according to the social doctrine of the Church, know well the proposals of the candidates of parties, reflect on the best option for the common good, and decide freely,” he said.

“This is why the work of spiritual accompaniment of Opus Dei avoids interfering with their legitimate earthly options. It is key to respect the autonomy of a layperson who participates in politics...their rights and wrongs are their own responsibility, not that of the Church. To ascribe to Opus Dei or to the Church as a whole, the cultural, political, economic, or social initiatives of the faithful is clericalism.”

The prelate of Opus Dei during an audience with Pope Francis on June 3rd, 2023. Courtesy: Office of Communications of Opus Dei.

With controversies mounting over Opus Dei and its role in the Church, Ocáriz said he believes those issues are an opportunity for internal self-examination among the prelature’s leadership.

“Every book, article, or documentary you mention weighs on us since it expresses someone’s pain or frustration. As you might understand, we work so that there are no reasons for it, because we wish that living the vocation to the Work is a reason for joy, as it is, thanks to God, for many thousands of people,” he said.

“But we will always make mistakes because we are an institution made up of human beings. Naturally, we wish to detect them in a timely way and remedy them as much as possible.”

While some former members say the organization is unwilling to hear critics, Ocáriz said that he is open to criticism, especially from people who have left Opus Dei.

“Criticism – even when it does not correspond to reality – might be an aid to discovering aspects in which we can improve. Although they may not be pleasant or always fair, sometimes they can become opportunities for examination and, occasionally, for interior maturation,” he said.

“We love from the bottom of our souls all the people who have belonged to the Work and, for whatever reason, left it...We respect each of them greatly because there was a desire to give their lives to God in that decision of becoming members of Opus Dei. On numerous occasions, I’ve had the opportunity to ask for forgiveness from those that still bear a wound from a lack of charity, of justice, or any other reason,” he added.

He said that many former members are thankful for the time spent in the Work.

“On many other occasions, I have witnessed their gratitude for the time spent in the Work and for the accompaniment received, which leads them to continue participating in spiritual and formative activities,” he said.

“In the last year, we have received almost daily a request of admission in Opus Dei from people who have previously belonged to the Work: life shows that reality has more nuance than what we may suppose according to an excessively dichotomous or polarized narrative.”

‘A vibrant and open presence’

While Opus Dei is undergoing significant changes, Ocáriz said he wanted to emphasize his view that the prelature’s core message — of holiness in ordinary life — is as relevant as ever.

“On March 3, 2017, I was received in an audience by Pope Francis for the first time. In that encounter, he made a very concrete request to the members of the prelature when he asked us to prioritize one periphery: the middle classes and the professional world, which are so far away from God,” he told The Pillar.

Ocáriz said he does not believe the main role of the laity should be within Church structures, but rather as evangelizers in the broader society.

“Some [laypeople working in the Church] might be necessary but, logically, it will be a small proportion,” he said.

“The Church is not mainly the temples or structures, but the people incorporated into Christ through baptism. A layperson carrying Jesus Christ in their heart and lifestyle will be a vibrant and open presence of the Church in their neighborhoods and communities, among family and friends, among believers and non-believers.”

“From its beginnings, the Work has tried to go in that direction: It reminds us that people, with their virtues and defects, can become God's hand outstretched to many others, even those who might never step into a church,” he said.

“It is essential because it is what Saint Josemaría Escrivá understood God was asking from him: explaining, showing, discovering, and reminding the universal call to holiness in the middle of the world and through ordinary realities, primarily family and work life. Ordinary believers who live amid these realities can witness how Christ is present in their lives and how this pushes them to become different people and transform their environment,” he added.

Ocáriz proposes returning to the evangelical spirit of the First Christians.

“In the beginnings of the Church, Christians evangelized in different contexts: some in environments with a deep religious tradition – as we see in the Gospels – and others in which this was not the case. This reality is a light that might give us confidence, as we can learn a lot from how the Church lived in apostolic times,” he said.

“The essential aspect of Opus Dei’s mission is friendship and confidence with each man and woman, using Saint Josemaría’s words. Collaborating with the grace of God to help people and nations encounter Christ, person to person, one-on-one.”

Editor’s note: Subsequent to the publication of this report, a spokesperson for Opus Dei contacted The Pillar, to emphasize that the prelature “categorically denies the accusation of human trafficking.”