Argentine prosecutors accuse Opus Dei leaders in South America of trafficking and labor exploitation

By DÉBORA REY
Updated 5:59 PM CDT, September 30, 2024

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine prosecutors have concluded that there are grounds for launching a criminal investigation into the highest authorities of Opus Dei in South America between 1983 and 2015 for the crimes of human trafficking and labor exploitation against at least 44 women recruited by the religious order to perform domestic tasks in their homes.

According to a document seen by The Associated Press, prosecutors sought a federal judge to summon those who served during that period as vicar or regional councilor of Opus Dei Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia to testify: Carlos Nannei (1991-1997), Patricio Olmos (1998-2014) and Víctor Urtizarrazu (2014-2022). They also seek to interrogate the regional secretary in charge of the order’s female section, Gabriel Dondo, who held the position until 2015.

Opus Dei — Work of God in Latin — was founded by the Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá in 1928, and has 90,000 members in 70 countries. The lay group, which was greatly favored by St. John Paul II, who canonized Escrivá in 2002, has a unique status in the church and reports directly to the pope. Most members are laymen and women with secular jobs and families who strive to “sanctify ordinary life.” Other members are priests or celibate lay people.

Following a complaint filed in 2022, the team of prosecutors launched an investigation that concluded that from the early 1970s until 2015, “people holding different positions within Opus Dei established a structure dedicated to recruiting at least 44 women, most of them girls and adolescents, to be subjected to living conditions comparable to servitude.”

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https://apnews.com/article/argentina-opus-dei-c04dc1f54c033a967975c6261922f698