Heritage Foundation leader has long received spiritual guidance from group and his policy goals align with its teachings

Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president and the architect of Project 2025, the conservative thinktank’s road map for a second Trump presidency, has close ties and receives regular spiritual guidance from an Opus Dei-led center in Washington DC, a hub of activity for the radical and secretive Catholic group.

Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that – for years – he has visited the Catholic Information Center, a K Street institution headed by an Opus Dei priest and incorporated by the archdiocese of Washington, on a weekly basis for mass and “formation”, or religious guidance. Opus Dei also organizes monthly retreats at the CIC.

  • b000rg@midwest.socialEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    Does anyone know of any good sources of information about Opus Dei? I’ve been curious about it ever since I first heard about it on some conspiracy podcast, but I haven’t ever been able to find out a whole lot about it online.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      The Wikipedia page is a bit sus as well.

      I’m guessing it’s pretty boring, like Free Masons and other secretive groups, but who knows. People tend to overreact to things they don’t understand, which is why secretive groups like this get so many conspiracy theories created about them. Some people just want to maintain their privacy, and there’s nothing wrong with that IMO.

      Don’t take this as me defending him or anything like that, I think Project 2025 is terrible for a whole host of reasons. But I don’t think it’s because of ties to a Catholic club.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      I don’t know if you looked at this article:

      https://www.npr.org/2005/11/28/5029154/a-glimpse-inside-a-catholic-force-opus-dei

      Opus Dei is an international lay Catholic group whose core ideal is the sanctification of work. But critics and some former members have accused the group of having cult-like practices and promoting a right-wing agenda.

      Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928; today, it has 84,000 members in 80 countries. For many, the group first gained wide attention when it was portrayed in Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. The thriller depicted the group as a repository for arcane knowledge and fervent – even dangerous – belief.

      Two other real-life events also helped to raise Opus Dei’s profile: FBI agent Robert Hanssen, a member of the group, was arrested for spying in 2001; and Pope John Paul II canonized founder Josemaria Escriva as a saint in 2002.

      I would suggest reading this book and looking into the journalist behind it if you want to see how the vatican is just the mob as a religion. I’m not talking about the parishioners or even some of the priests and nuns, that’s a different topic. They talk about a lot of people still in the headlines. I seem to remember Opus Dei being mentioned in some shenanigans but I don’t remember what. There is also a book by him (I think) that talks about the financials going back as far as they could.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Holiness:_The_Secret_Papers_of_Benedict_XVI

      Edit: Here is another article about them: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-30/what-is-opus-dei-secretive-catholic-church-group-prelature/101905802

      Its recruitment practices have been criticised, with critics and former members claiming it aggressively targets young people.

      Opus Dei’s ultra-conservative teachings have also garnered controversy, even among Catholics.

      Numeraries and other celibate members of the group practise corporal mortification, the deliberate experience of pain or discomfort so as to become closer to God.