Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church

"Based on Gore's research, it appears Opus Dei is not founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ and that would not be someone they would attempt to recruit because poor carpenters are not Opus Dei's target audience.”

In 1960, when John F. Kennedy was running for president, the thought of a Catholic being elected President of the United States terrified many people who were convinced that the Pope would be running the country, and JFK would answer directly to him. Well, that didn't happen, but now Gareth Gore's book, Opus, opens up the frightening possibilities being pursued by the conservative Catholic cult, known as Opus Dei, which is gaining strength and intent on taking over everything. And Gore makes clear that Opus Dei does not answer to the Pope.

This is a scary book and just in time for Halloween. Don't read it with the lights out and holding a rosary won't give you any protection from the cult-like aspirations of Opus Dei. Under Gore's skillful research readers will learn about a 100-year-old organization that was designed to impose its view of religion and the world on everyone. Never has "follow the money" been so important. Gore lays out, in meticulous detail, how Opus Dei, whose members are known as "numeraries" and "supernumeraries," recruit young men who are wealthy, come from wealthy families, or are destined to become wealthy.

Poor girls and young women are recruited with the promise of education and career opportunities. Instead, they find themselves in enslaved and in what has been called a human trafficking situation, and from which escape is difficult. These women sleep on wooden pallets, cook and clean for the men, and have their wages "donated" to the Opus Dei coffers through their "employers."

The history of Opus Dei, and its founder, Josemaría Escrivá, is laid out in excruciating detail. Escrivá's association with Francisco Franco, the former Spanish dictator, reflects the depths to which Opus Dei will descend to achieve its goals.

What jumps out in this book is that Opus Dei appears to be nothing more than a religious Ponzi scheme. The book discusses the efforts of Opus Dei leaders to accumulate massive amounts of money while strategically developing a chain of foundations, institutes, and "charities" that, on the surface, have no discernable relationship to Opus Dei, while at the same time controlling those entities and distribution of the money and assets collected. The Opus Dei leadership relies on "plausible deniability" to stay afloat.

Gore writes about the collaboration between Opus Dei and wealthy benefactors in the U.S. who "were forming a new alliance that would eventually transform a small and obscure group of conservative Catholics into the most consequential force in American politics."

The wealthy Americans that Gore references in this book, and their relationship to Opus Dei, provides readers with a wealth-based roadmap that exposes the serious threat this organization poses to the country.

According to the author, one Opus Dei operative, Father Arne Panula, "made friends in the judiciary and fondly became known within Opus Dei circles as a 'friend and confidant to billionaires and Supreme Court Justices.'" Those billionaires include entrepreneur Peter Thiel, and Leonard Leo. In fact, the people listed in the chapter, "A Marriage of Convenience," reads like a who's who of conservatives who have had a significant impact on the reduction of women's reproductive rights in the U.S.

Gore predicts that Opus Dei "will plow forward with its plans to re-Christianize the planet." And the author names their next targets as gay marriage, secular education, scientific research, and the arts, stating "Opus Dei and its sympathizers could mastermind . . . devastating victories in those areas."

While Pope Francis I has initiated steps to rein in Opus Dei and its practices the organization is banking on Francis dying and being replaced before anything definitive can happen to diminish the organization's position in the Catholic Church.

All told, there is little to reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ in Opus Dei's actions. Based on Gore's research, it appears Opus Dei is not founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ and that would not be someone they would attempt to recruit because poor carpenters are not Opus Dei's target audience.