Opus Dei P2: more pain, less gain

In this two‑part deep dive, we wade back into the shadowy waters of Opus Dei—an organization that somehow manages to be a bank‑adjacent power broker, a cult‑coded spiritual discipline factory, and, according to ongoing legal cases in Argentina, an alleged human‑trafficking operation all at once. We trace the group’s reach from the “Little Sisters” labor‑trafficking lawsuits to the celibate numeraries practicing mortification rituals straight out of a Dan Brown fever dream, and then into the political tentacles stretching through Washington, D.C., the Federalist Society, Project 2025, and beyond. With whistleblowers, ex‑members, Vatican pushback, and a suspicious number of billion‑dollar friends, Opus Dei emerges less like a prayer group and more like a shadow network with influence in finance, government, and conservative Catholic power structures. Also: tentacles. So many tentacles.National Catholic Reporter, "The Case Against Opus Dei" (January 2025).