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Federal prosecutors in Argentina have accused senior leaders in Opus Dei of overseeing the exploitation and trafficking of women, in the first criminal proceedings to stem from public allegations against the Catholic group.
The searing 136-page request for an inquiry, seen by the Financial Times, alleges that the organisation “established a structure dedicated to the recruitment of at least 44 women, most of them girls and adolescents” who were then “subjected to living conditions comparable to servitude”.
The women, who were involved with the group between approximately 1972 and 2015, were “assistant numeraries”, a female-only category of Opus Dei members who commit their lives to domestic work in the organisation’s centres.
The prosecutor’s report is the first time that senior leaders of the group have been legally implicated in accusations raised by former members. Previous court cases have been limited to affiliated civil entities, such as particular charities or members that run individual Opus Dei centres.
Opus Dei, in a statement on behalf of its members named in the report, said: “We categorically deny the accusations of human trafficking and labour exploitation.”
The group said the allegations were based on a “complete decontextualisation” of “the vocation freely chosen by the assistant numeraries”, adding that the women received a salary for their work and lived in a “welcoming environment [with] facilities for rest, recreation, reading and study”.
But the serious allegations will raise further questions about the inner workings of the Catholic group, which has close ties to conservative political movements in the US.
The prosecutor’s report suggests that the exploitation of women is core to the organisation’s functioning. It cited one victim who said: “We were the foundation so that others could change the world.”
The report is the culmination of a two-year investigation by Argentine prosecutors, after dozens of women publicly accused Opus Dei of exploitation in the Argentine media.
Earlier this year, an FT investigation uncovered similar allegations in Europe and the US.
After an initial investigation, prosecutors in Argentine criminal proceedings can request that a judge begin an inquiry, where the accused are called to testify. The judge then decides whether the case should proceed to trial.
The prosecutors’ argument is based on the testimony of 44 women but legal restrictions such as statutes of limitation mean the case could be centred on one complainant.
“Although it is painful to reach a judicial instance of this nature, we believe that after more than three years of similar accusations made only in the media, the investigation is necessary to clarify the situation definitively,” Opus Dei said.
The prosecutors requested that three former heads of Opus Dei in Argentina — Carlos Nannei, Patricio Olmos and Víctor Urrestarazu — be summoned for questioning, as well as a priest who was in charge of relations with the women’s section, Gabriel Dondo.
Prosecutors detailed the recruitment of girls from low-income, rural families as a “deceitful selection” that took “advantage of their extreme vulnerability”. They said the women were “enticed” by promises of education and job opportunities, but were then “trapped in a cycle of exploitation and abuse”, working 14-hour days with barely any rest.
The prosecutors — Eduardo Taiano, head of the national prosecutor’s office, as well as María Alejandra Mángano and Marcelo Colombo, co-heads of the Office of the Prosecutor for Human Trafficking and Exploitation — said the women did not receive salaries, which were instead given to the organisation.
They said the women’s access to medical care and the outside world was heavily controlled.
“In short, these women were subjected to extreme labour exploitation, with a total lack of fair remuneration and basic rights, all under the pretext of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘spiritual salvation’,” the prosecutors said.
Opus Dei is an official group within the Catholic Church and its statutes are approved by the Vatican, which did not respond to a request for comment. The judge has not yet ruled on the inquiry request.
Additional reporting by Ciara Nugent in Buenos Aires
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