I will serve you, Book of the investigation journalist Paula Bistagnino, edited by Planeta, is a work that covers the history of Opus Dei in Argentina, from its inception to the present.
The author states that certain practices, such as the capture of great fortunes and the submission of poor people, are systematically applied in each of the 68 countries where Opus Dei operates. Part of the difficulty of his investigation resided in the absence of responses of the self -domening the work, which, on the contrary, decided to deny it in a statement, usual practice towards those who contradict their speech in the world. This is the first part of two deliveries, of the interview with the journalist Paula Bistagnino.
– What is Opus Dei?
– It is one of the newest institutions of the Catholic Church, founded in 1928 by the Spanish priest and today Holy Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. He obtained the first official guarantee in the 40s, but the final approval and the Legal Constitution as a personal prelature was granted by Juan Pablo II in 1982.
“This figure, unique in the institution, is a hierarchical structure that operates with autonomy of the dioceses and the bishops, and responds to their own authorities in Rome.
Above the prelate of Opus Dei is only the Pope. As stated, it is in 68 countries and adds about 90 thousand members, of which only 2,000 are priests and the rest are lay. While all are considered the same in their holiness and commitment, there are different categories or ways of belonging. At the tip of the pyramid are the priests and the numeraries, who are the celibate members living with commitments of chastity, poverty and obedience in residences of the work. The numbers are university students and work in their profession, in the private or public sphere, but deliver their salaries to the institution and receive money for their expenses. Another category is that of aggregates, which also make commitments of chastity, poverty and obedience, but can live in their homes. Then there are supernumeraries, who can form family. Your contribution is with money, goods, work and links. The same structure is replicated in the female branch, to which the category of auxiliary numbers are also added, which are the ones that carry out the domestic service of the centers, the residences, the retirement houses and the administrations. That vocation cannot change: there is no possibility that an auxiliary number becomes a number, so all your life develops in cooking, cleaning and maintenance.
An arm against the left
– Is there a direct relationship between Opus and military dictatorships?
– The most fertile territory for Opus Dei outside Spain was Latin America. He came first to Mexico because they were interested in their size and Catholicism; Then, to the United States, and then towards the countries of the center and south. I interviewed former Opus members in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay; In all these countries, dictatorial governments and right, as an ally of the anti -communist struggle in Latin America; It has been a very important arm to combat even doors inside the church, to the most left lines.
In Argentina, in different periods of the dictatorship she was donated to Opus Dei half block in the most expensive neighborhood in Buenos Aires, and then granted a subsidy for the construction of the main headquarters. This was a story, until I could corroborate it with documentation.
“Opus is characterized by her secrecy. What else did you find in your research?
– He caught the attention that they are very professional people, and very intelligent, but some religious operated on them to make their lives and their actions conditioned by that elite. They entered to be the gear of a major plan; Opus Dei is a machinery that eliminates people’s subjectivity. Its founder, Josemaría Escrivá, said that people are small screws of that machinery
. I entered looking for faith and a way of life attached to it, and gave with a power machinery, an organization of economic power with a lot of people at the service of an institution that wants to govern, that has a vocation of power and seeks money with money A direct and visceral intention.
▲ According to Paula Bistagnino’s research, Mexico was the closest in America to Opus Dei, everything was more rigorous, since it was a faithful replica of Spain.Photo Alejandra López
– What is the relationship between Opus Dei and Mexico?
−Mexico was the closest in America to Opus Dei, a faithful replica of Spain. That institution did in Mexico the same as in all countries: it has had its maid schools, exploited women recruited in their adolescence; It also has access to power, to the government and justice. Currently, I am extending my research to Mexico.
“There is a great link between Mexico and Argentina, because, as the Spanish arrived, then everything was more rigorous; Thus, Argentine women were sent to be formed by them or by Mexicans formed with the Spanish. Mexico was an example of territory for Latin America, and I think that explains that complaints take more to appear. It was a safe territory for a story like the one I have in my book: to give refuge to the Argentine banker Rafael Trozzo, who escaped from Argentina in the 80s, after being denounced for breaking the BIR, regional exchange bank, and cheating Many people. Recently, I spoke with two former Mexican members of Opus Dei who had him as a professor of ethics at the Pan American University; He also had a program on Mexican television in the 1980s, called Ask Trozzo.”
Sect or institution?
– Is the correct term sect to describe an organization like Opus Dei?
– There is a number of steps to follow for a sect: personality manipulation with obtaining information and the use of it to dominate you, the isolation of the family and other social ties that are not members of the institution, obedience … Opus Dei applies these issues to its cell members. Many people who were in Opus Dei say: I was in a sect
; In some cases they escaped, since they lived in houses of which they had no keys and under a surveillance system mounted so that they had no autonomy. However, it is difficult for me to say that something institutionalized in the Ministry of Worship of the countries, in the Catholic Church, which is the most institutional of religions in our countries, can be called sect. It is complex, because it has many elements of it, but it is completely legalized. So, in addition, they worked with that tranquility.
– In the book is documented how Opus Dei exercised editorial censorship regarding the cultural consumption of its members. How was that situation modified with the massification of the Internet?
−Internet was one of the things that killed Opus Dei regarding what was until 2000; It served so that former members could share their testimonies. The more than 200 interviewees told me that when they left they believed that only they had gotten out of that huge ship, because when a member left the institution inside they told them that they had sent him to another country or that he was crazy. When they managed to put the testimonies in common, they realized that in Mexico, Argentina or the Philippines the same things were lived: there was a matrix that allowed everything to be executed as a franchise.