Randy Engel
On the first anniversary of the Voris/Jones affair
A Response to E. Michael Jones With Follow-Up Questions
By Randy Engel
July 2017
On April 20, 2017, E. Michael Jones posted the following letter to my earlier commentary "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," a study of the role played by the Prelature of Opus Dei in the sordid Michael Voris affair as described in Jones' e-book The Man Behind the Curtain: Michael Voris and the Homosexual Vortex.
Let me begin with a comment about Jones' main charge which appears to be that I was critical of his personal friendships.
In "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," I asked Jones, both directly and indirectly, several questions including why he didn't identify Marc Brammer, a key player in The Man Behind the Curtain, as the Vice-President of Jones' Ultramontane Associates, Inc., as a supernumerary of Opus Dei, and as a potential business associate in a media venture of Brammer's Institute for New Media.
I was not critical of Jones' thirty-year friendship with Brammer per say, but I did rightly question Jones' professional relationship with the Opus Dei supernumerary which might have biased Jones' opinion in favor of Brammer in the telling of the Voris affair.
Neither was I critical of Jones' friendship with Father Paul Nicholson, Voris's spiritual director.
But I, along with many readers of The Man Behind the Curtain, was critical of Jones' revelations of the intimate details of Voris' past homosexual escapades as revealed to him by Fr. Nicholson. Clearly, these details were revealed to the priest either under the seal of confession or under spiritual direction.
A point on this matter that I did not include in my original story is that a violation of the "penitential secret," as opposed to a violation of the "penitential seal," in which "anyone who records, using any technical instrument, or who divulges, through any means of social communication , that which is said by the confessor or by the penitent in the Sacrament of Confession, whether it be true or false, learned by one's own means or from a third party, will incur an excommunication latae sententiae.."
Dr. Jones, therefore, may have shared in the guilt of Fr. Nicholson by publishing, for the world to see, the sins revealed to the priest by Voris.
For the record, this reference on the violation of the "penitential secret," is taken from the Exegetical Commentary of the Code of Canon Law, prepared under the responsibility of the Instituto Martin De Azpilcueta (Author), Angel Marzoa (Editor), Jorge Miras (Editor), Rafael Rodriguez-Ocana (Editor), University of Navarre (Opus Dei), Volume III/1, 2004.
Again, I questioned why Jones didn't reveal that Nicholson was an associate Opus Dei priest?
Nor was I critical of Jones' relationship with Frank Coan, another key player in his e-book. However, I did indeed raise the question as to why Jones failed to mention that Coan was Brammer's silent partner in at least three media ventures including RealCatholicTV, the Institute for New Media and Greenstar Productions, LLC. Further, in his response to my article, Jones never answered the question as to Coan's relationship, if any, to Opus Dei, since RealCatholicTV was an Opus Dei media apostolate. It makes one wonder how much research Jones did himself and how much of his timeline and facts were spoon fed to him by the Opus Dei duet of Nicholson and Brammer.
In summary, to be loyal and faithful to one's friends is indeed a virtue. But it ceases to be a virtue when said friendships blinds a person to the evils and abuses perpetrated by the entity in question, in this case, Opus Dei, to which many of the characters in The Man Behind the Curtain have pledged their lifelong fidelity and devotion.
I think it rather passing strange that, based on Jones' total response, it would appear that he believes it is an attack upon his character to suggest that he is associated with Opus Dei. Why is that?
Why is it that if you asked a person if he or she, let's say, is a Third Order Dominican or Third Order Franciscan, you'll quickly get a yes or no reply. If yes, the person may ask if you are interested in the Order and offer you some literature or invite you to a public meeting of their apostolate.
But if you ask a man or women you think is associated with Opus Dei, excluding those who by permission represent the "public face" of Opus Dei like Marc Brammer, "Are you a member of Opus Dei?" you are often met with a blank stare and perhaps a wall of silence or simply a lie, as if you had just asked them, "Are you a Mafioso?" Why is that?
What Jones and Opus Dei Have in Common
In his April 20th response, Jones states that he is not a member of Opus Dei nor does he have any ties "concrete" or otherwise to that organization. Interestingly, he answers a question I never asked of him in my article, "Are you a member of Opus Dei?"
I accept his statement of non-membership in Opus Dei, although I don't agree that he has no ties, including philosophical ties, whatsoever to the Prelature.
Jones does admit that "once upon a time" he attended evenings of recollection "at the local center." What's the matter, Michael? Opus Dei still got your tongue? Why do you still seem to have difficulty spitting out the word "Windmoor," as in the Windmoor Opus Dei Study Center in South Bend near the Notre Dame campus where Michael Voris first met Marc Brammer in 2008, and the idea for RealCatholicTV was incubated?
Jones clearly states that he and Opus Dei, which he describes as "the world's most prominent purveyor of neoconservative Catholicism, not just here, but throughout the world," have little to nothing in common. However, as any reader of his Voris exposé will recall, Jones and the Prelature of Opus Dei appear to share several world views including a distaste for the Catholic Traditionalist Movement, as well as a desire to "Christianize" capitalism.
I was surprised to note that Jones identified Opus Dei disapprovingly as a part of "neoconservative Catholicism." But Opus Dei Brammer, in his March 5, 2011 e-mail to me, states that both he and Jones "have an equal distaste for neo-cons across both major political parties." Does Brammer's criticism also apply to the Prelature of Opus Dei as described above by Jones? I wonder because in that same e-mail, Brammer states he had had other media collaborations which he was equally excited about, one involving Jones and that the two men were planning a joint venture with the release of Jones' book on Capitalism later that year.
Brammer said "It has the potential of being a game changer," and went on to suggest that Jones would "highlight evil forces within the secular culture that can look to Church tradition for better guidance including just wages and just prices."
Gee. Speaking of just wages, do you think that Jones might possibly look into Opus Dei's modernized version of indentured servants, aka, its numerary assistants/auxiliaries who are young, unmarried women, often poor and foreign-born, who are recruited and trained to work for long hours at slave wages in Opus Dei residences and centers?
Multiple lawsuits have been filed in Paris courts by a French woman, Catherine Tissier, now 45, who charges that she was subject to years of abuse as an auxiliary numeraire to Opus Dei.
According to Tissier, in 1985, when she joined the Dosnon Hotel School, and the adjoining International Center for Meetings of Couvrelles in France at the age of 14 to train for hospitality work, neither she nor her parents were ever told that ACUT, the university and technical culture association that runs the school, was tied to Opus Dei.
When her assigned "spiritual director" pressed her to join Opus Dei and take vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, she agreed, but she was not permitted to tell her parents. Opus Dei restricted her visitation rights to go home to once a year.
For 13 years, Tissier worked from 7am to 10pm, cleaning, washing and other domestic chores in Opus Dei residences and meeting places. When feeling unwell, an Opus Dei physician treated her with anti-psychotic drugs. What remained of her monthly wages was almost nothing as Opus Dei extracted payment for her rent, food, and clothing. When her parents finally rescued her from Opus Dei her bank account was 10 euros. Her weight was 86 pounds.
The first of the Tissier trials took place on September 22-23, 2011, after a 9-year probe of the Opus Dei facilities. Members Claire de Segonzac and Agues Duhal were acquitted of charges of "mental manipulation," and "illegal employment." This verdict got wide coverage by the international press. Tissier's lawyers appealed.
In a ruling of March 26, 2013, the Paris Court of Appeals found ACUT and the Dosnon Hotel School and Opus Dei members, de Segonzac and Duhal, guilty of concealment of employees and insufficient remuneration for the work of a vulnerable or dependent person. ACUT was heavily condemned and fined 75,000 euros and the members 3,000 euros each. This court ordered two of Paris largest newspapers, Le Figaro and La Croix to disseminate the judgment. It is unclear if Opus Dei appealed the ruling.
Do you think Jones might do a follow-up story on the Tissier Case in Culture Wars?
Returning to the Brammer-Jones media plans on Capitalism, in the late fall of 2011, Brammer appeared on the Dennis O'Donovan talk show where he again discussed the possibility of hiring Jones for his upcoming new Opus Dei venture, the Institute for New Media, incorporated by Frank Coan and Brammer and Brammer's wife, Linda on February 17, 2012. One of the suggested topics to be addressed by Jones was the "reform" of Capitalism, no doubt along Opus Dei lines.
So, despite Jones' protestations, Brammer and Opus Dei and Jones must have had something in common when it comes to the "reform" of Capitalism, at least in past years.
Jones' views on Capitalism are well known to the readers of Culture Wars, but Opus Dei's plans for carrying out this "reform" are not as well-known especially to those who have been led to believe that Opus Dei is simply a "supernatural and spiritual organization" dedicated to the "sanctification" of work and the multiplication of "apostolates," and that it does not involve itself in worldly affairs including business management and financial enterprises.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. And the truth is that Opus Dei's goal of "building the kingdom of God on earth" will take a great deal of business acumen and an endless supply of money to achieve.
In the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. John, Our Lord announces before Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." John 18: 36. But Opus Dei believes otherwise and has its own plans to reconcile the world to God by building an earthly paradise here and now.
Robert Hutchison Lays the Groundwork
In Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei, Canadian financial investigative journalist Robert Hutchison explains the necessity and origin of Opus Dei's movement toward financial hegemony largely through the mechanism of foreign trade and foreign holdings (shell/off-shore companies) which produce hidden profits to be distributed at will by Opus Dei where needed. The Prelature's ostensible goal is to harness the international monetary system to spread the Gospel message. But not all the means it uses to achieve this goal, as documented by Hutchison, is "Good News."
Quoting in part, the sentiments expressed by Professor Javier Sainz Moreno of Madrid University who refers to Opus Dei as "a financial multinational," and not "a spiritual organization," Hutchison states, "... Opus Dei members believe strongly that Gods spoke to Moses, and also to Escrivá de Balaguer, but that money speaks to the world."
According to Hutchison, the period of the internationalization of Opus Dei after 1940 corresponded to the influx of large amount of cash flowing into the organization primarily from the expansion of membership to include married men and women, that is, supernumeraries, who pledge their fidelity and a significant portion of their income to the Work.
Capital, however, must be managed, and Opus Dei soon discovered the necessity of setting up banks and the need to establish a parallel financial network that permitted Father José María Escrivá de Balaguer to circumnavigate stringent capital transfer restrictions. Opus Dei numeraries were assigned to various countries to develop foreign trade outlets.
Because Opus Dei apostolates, including its business and financial apostolates are generally exempt from paying taxes, and donations to these apostolates are also tax deductible, and are free from standard tax reporting requirements, they have a financial advantage over their purely secular competition.
This parallel financial network mimics Escrivá's vision of Opus Dei as a parallel church, a Church within a Church, free from ecclesiastical control and governed by a quasi-religious priesthood selected exclusively from its own secular numeraries and an elite force of Opus Dei technocrats – intellectuals, academics, economists, scientists, and business and banking entrepreneurs who have been "called" by God "to save the Roman Catholic Church."
IESE and the Business World of Opus Dei
The Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa, known as IESE, has been part of Opus Dei's financial apparatus for more than fifty years.
In 1958, two Opus Dei numeraries created a private business management apostolate in Barcelona, Spain, which was strategically attached to Opus Dei's University of Navarre in Pamplona, and later to the Harvard Business School. They obtained a $50,000 grant from the Banco Popular Español which is one of Spain's largest banks. IESE was created by Opus Dei to serve as a model of humanized Capitalism that operates on traditional Christian ethics but uses modern scientific and business management principles.
Today, IESE's MBA business courses have been ranked as among the best in the world by Financial Times and The Economist. IESE boosts a business alumni network of 40,000 of the world's top business managers and global executives including a significant number of Opus Dei numeraries, supernumeraries and cooperators who have graduated from IESE. Its graduates also include non-Catholics – Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists and agnostics.
Up until 2016, the dean of IESE has always been a Spanish member of Opus Dei. The new dean is German-born Franz Heukamp who now presides over the school's Executive Committee which is in charge policy and curriculum development, faculty hiring, investments and program portfolio. Opus Dei numeraries and supernumeraries are included in the large academic and administrative staff of IESE.
In recent years, IESE has expanded its international outreach program into the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Mideast, and Africa. The latter is a special target for Opus Dei expansion into Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Angola. IESE campus extensions and training facilities are found in Madrid, Munich, Sao Paulo and New York City. The latter IECE facility in midtown Manhattan also includes the Institute for Media and Entertainment which trains corporate executives in the communication field and industry leaders from top media corporations including Disney, Time Warner and Viacom.
As a business school, IESE draws financial support from international businesses, private donors and multi-national corporations including Barclays, Nissan and the Rothchilds.
Officially, Opus Dei eschews its normal heavy-handed recruitment methods at the graduate business institution although any pious male Catholic found hanging around the ground floor modernistic chapel is always fair game. However, when dealing with older and more seasoned businessmen and financiers a more subtle and sophisticated strategy is required.
Hutchison has reported that many of Opus Dei's best cadres have been formed at IESE and he explains how it all works:
In December 2010, Jeremy Hazelehurst of the Financial Times did a lengthy story on Opus Dei and IESE and he asked the same question. The consensus among IESE alumni was "not much."
Spanish-born Jack Valero, however, the public face of Opus Dei in the United Kingdom and co-founder of Catholic Voices UK media project, did provide some interesting comments to Hazelehurst on the connection between business success and the spiritual life as viewed through the eyes of a senior Opus Dei supernumerary:
And certainly, helping to bring about fair wages and an improvement in working conditions and even a change of occupation for any man seeking to improve his economic position, is a praiseworthy endeavor.
But Valero's proposition, which suggests that the poor find it hard to pray, and somehow are disconnected from God because of their poverty, is truly beyond the pale. What an un-Christian concept and slap in the face and rebuke against Divine Providence. Where do you think Valero, who came into Opus Dei at the age of 16, got this witless, claptrap idea? Certainly not from Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who clearly chose to be born into poverty with a manger for His bed. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests: but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." Matthew 8:20.
Opus Dei Pilleria Comes in All Shapes and Sizes
While IESE fellows are urged to base their business practices on the highest standards of professionalism and accountability so as to be worthy leaders of business and society, in private practice, Opus Dei admits to the necessity of pilleria (dirty tricks) when warranted. Escrivá justified pilleria in business on the theory that "our life is a warfare of love, and for Opus Dei all is fair in love and war."
The following cases of Opus Dei's business ventures gone awry come in two different financial sizes. The first, the Dubro scandal, involved thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. The second, the Roveraro/Parmalat scandal involved billions of dollars/euros and murder most foul.
The Dennis Dubro Affair
Dennis Dubro was a young Catholic undergraduate student studying physics at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1969 when he was invited by a numerary friend to attend some meetings at the Opus Dei Harvard campus student resident center. MIT is just a 30 to 40-minute walk from Harvard University, which has been an important Opus Dei "fishing" and recruitment ground for more than fifty years.
In contrast to the secular environment of both universities, Opus Dei appeared to offer a safe haven by which Dubro could deepen his Catholic faith. And since the Church had given Opus Dei its stamp of approval the young man decided to join as a numerary member. Initially he did not read the fine print of his lifelong commitment because Opus Dei's statutes and constitution were not given him to read. As with Freemasonry, rules and regulations were gradually and methodically revealed to him.
Dubro was assigned an Opus Dei priest as his spiritual director and regular confessor. Later, he was assigned a lay spiritual director which meant a shift in the nature of his earlier spiritual direction which was covered under the seal of confession to the realm of "the confidence," which is not covered by the seal.
Well into his sophomore year, Dubro mistakenly informed his residence director that after completing his physics degree he planned on returning home to California and would be leaving Opus Dei. That's when he learned that he had committed himself for LIFE to Opus Dei.
As graduation approached and Dubro was considering plans for graduate studies, he was asked by his director to go to Australia to conduct his graduate work and to assist in a "corporate apostolate" at Warrane College, a large men's dormitory/residence administered by Opus Dei for students attending the University of New South Wales, a secular institution.
The men's residence was officially opened on June 13, 1971. Technically, it is an apostolate project of the Education Development Association, Australia, one of Opus Dei's many world-wide holding companies. In my original study "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," I included a section on the Education Development Association, Chicago, a U.S.-based Opus Dei holding company for numerous Opus Dei apostolates.
Prior to Dubro's arrival in 1974, there had been a spate of student riots turned violent at the Warrane facility in response to Opus Dei's strict lifestyle regulations. Part of Dubro's job was to try and mediate the difficulties between Opus Dei expectations and student demands and bring them together for a peaceful resolution. He was also assigned recruitment quotas and given a monthly list of one-time donors which he was to try and convert into regular donors.
There were frustrating moments for Dubro in carrying out his "apostolate," but the real trouble began when he was promoted to an office of government within Opus Dei – that of Bursar or Business Manager of Warrane College. He took the place of two Opus Dei supernumerary professional accountants who, unbeknownst to young Dubro, ultimately refused to continue to engage in a game of bookkeeping pilleria and had to be replaced.
Even though he had no accounting experience, Dubro was a fast learner and quickly assumed responsibility for the day-to-day operations, maintenance, budgets, and financial management of both the dormitory as well as Opus Dei's other apostolic operations. He also was appointed to the Opus Dei's local 5-member Council.
Mindful of all the lessons preached by Opus Dei on the necessity of honesty and integrity in business matters, Dubro was quite surprised to be told by his director on the day of his appointment as Bursur that Opus Dei didn't follow standard accounting practices because they were wasteful and legalistic. He was told rather to put all his energies into bringing souls into Opus Dei, that is, in recruiting new members.
It didn't take long for Dubro to learn that Opus Dei was cooking its books.
First, Dubro discovered that money was missing from the accounts. Also, he learned that the dormitory had been submitting false audits for years without the auditor in charge having examined the accounts before signing off on them. When Dubro attempted to correct some of the abuses he was put down by the senior directors. He was forbidden under the rubric of obedience from conducting his own investigation and even as Bursar, was denied access to all the accounting books.
One of the important observations that Dubro gleaned from the chaotic irregular bookkeeping procedures was that Opus Dei was laundering money for EDA, Australia, and transferring large sums to unspecified other sources.
After spending several months studying the numerous apostolates of EDA, Chicago, for my original article, there is no doubt in this writer's mind that Opus Dei uses its senior numeraries and supernumeraries for this same purpose.
Even though Dubro had always believed that in the fundamental charism of Opus Dei as the sanctification of professional work, he was now forced to admit that as Bursar of Warrane College, his Opus Dei directors had foisted upon him "work that could not be sanctified."
In the end, there was an independent audit. The outcome was a charge of "gross negligence." Dubro was made the scapegoat for Warrane College's financial irregularities and removed from office without being given any chance to defend himself. He then returned to his graduate studies at the University of New South Wales and completed his doctorate in polymer physics, and a post-doctorate in medical physics.
In 1986, Dubro was ordered back to the United States. One year later, in 1987, having given 17 years of service and income to Opus Dei, he was dismissed from the Prelature after being told that Opus Dei has the right to dismiss permanent members without intervention from the Vatican. This was a lie.
When the Vatican failed to react to his complaints, a canon lawyer-priest suggested he file a civil suit, which Dubro did. The suit, filed in New York, charged Opus Dei with fraud and breach of contract. In May 2008, the former Opus Dei numerary learned that his case had been dismissed due to a legal technicality related to the statute of limitations.
Unlike many former Opus Dei numeraries, Dubro, a nuclear engineer, now in his mid-60s, remains a member of the Catholic Church.
There are some additional comments by Dennis Dubro found in http://www.opus-info.org/index.php?title=Seventeen_Years_in_Opus_Dei which I wish to add before moving on to the "Roveraro Affair."
According to Dubro, one day the Regional Director (Australia), the second in command, explained to him and others that it was not wrong to cheat as long as you do it for God. The director said he had cheated on his medical exam to get ahead. Later, the Vicar paid Dubro a personal visit to make sure he got the point. He did, in spades.
As a low-level Opus Dei functionary, but with a persistent desire to know the truth, Dubro played a relatively minor role in the financial politics of Opus Dei as they played out at Warrane College. But to his credit, he was very much aware, earlier than most, that:
My thanks to award-winning journalist Rita Pennarola of La Voce della Campania for her many ground-breaking articles on Opus Dei's international apostolate and financial operations including "Tutti Holding e Opus Dei" found at http://blogtestabug.blogspot.com/2010/12/tutti-holding-e-opus-dei.html.
Gianmario Roveraro Plays the Game
Gianmario Roveraro, a seventy-year old Opus Dei supernumerary, and former world-renowned financier, was kidnapped on the evening of July 5, 2006 at the Pagano metro stop following an evening of prayer and spiritual direction at the Opus Dei center in Milan. He was one of many wealthy and influential Italians known to be members of the sect.
The handsome and distinguished Roveraro was born in Albenga, on the Gulf of Genoa, in 1936 and was married to Silvana Canepa. The couple has three children, now grown. Neither his wife nor children ever saw Roveraro alive after that fateful night in July.
Gauging from his lengthy list of high-level financial and recruiting apostolates carried out for Opus Dei, it is probable that Roveraro was recruited at a young age, perhaps after his Olympic career as a high-jumper came to an end or after he had graduated with a degree in economics.
In 1961, at the age of 25, Roveraro began his financial career. Five years later he joined the Istituto Mobiliare Italiano (IMI), a state investment company serving institutional investors, financial networks, corporations, and government institutions, and supplying high-quality financial products and services.
In 1987, Roveraro left IMI and set up a banking services company – Akros Finaziaria. Among his 200 partners was Opus Dei member Ettore Gotti Tedeschi who later became president of the Vatican Bank (IOR). In 2012 Tedeschi, made international news when he was reportedly being investigated for money laundering. Shortly afterwards, the five superintendents of the IOR issued a non-confidence vote in Tedeschi and urged his termination. Among those casting a no vote against Tedeschi was American Carl Anderson, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus and a supernumerary of Opus Dei. Opus Dei's global financial and banking interlock gives a whole new meaning to "all in the family." The charges against Tedeschi were later dropped.
In 1997, Roveraro was forced into an early retirement when an Akros real estate deal, estimated to be worth 290 billion lire, fell through, and the firm had to be dissected and restructured. The prominent financier then started his own real estate business in Milan while continuing with his many other Opus Dei apostolates.
Roveraro's Ties to Opus Dei's Biomedical University
According to Italian reporter Rita Pennarola, as of June 1, 2006, Roveraro owned 364,715 shares of Biomedical University shares worth 36 million euros.
Biomedical University and its research hospital, and bioengineering and educational complex on the outskirts of Rome is an Opus Dei apostolate established in 1993. It also receives additional income from the European Union and the Italian public tax trough.
The Biomedical campus is a major recruitment arena for Opus Dei as well as a training ground and research facility for Opus Dei members. The president of the Board of Advisors is none other than Opus Dei numerary, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, former Vatican press secretary and a physician, psychiatrist and journalist in his own right. Dr. Navarro-Valls died in Rome on July 5, 2017.
The university promises as its cultural aim to restore to the biomedical sciences "the value of human life and the person as their central focus," but there is some evidence to suggest it might do otherwise.
Take the case of Dr. Raffaello Cortesini, a member of Opus Dei and a well-known Italian heart and organ transplantation surgeon who engendered negative international attention when he implanted chimpanzee organs into his human patients. Cortesini is the former President of the Medical Board that reviews potential miracles for the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He served on the staff of the Faculty of Medicine at the Università di Roma "La Sapienza, but was caught up in an organ trafficking scandal and eventually left Italy for a position at Columbia University in New York.
Then there is Opus Dei supernumerary and former Episcopal priest, John M. Haas, President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), a spin-off of the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center chartered in St. Louis, Missouri in 1972. The renamed center has relocated in Philadelphia, and Haas has become America's post-conciliar church's spokesman on moral and medical ethics.
Haas' professional resume, sans any identification he is an Opus Dei senior member, is impressive. His past positions include: a registered foreign agent for the Banco Nacional de México; John Cardinal Krol Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia; and Adjunct Professor at the (Opus Dei) Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and the Family, Washington, D.C. In 2006, he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life by Pope Benedict XVI. That membership was renewed in 2017 by Pope Francis. He is also a Knight of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.
In 2010, as Director of the U.S. Coalition for Life (USCL) this writer clashed with Haas over the plans of the Bar Harbor Jackson Lab, a notorious eugenic establishment, to build a facility on Tom Monaghan's Ave Marie property in Florida. The Jackson labs are known for their promotion of invitro fertilization and the cannibalization of human embryos to obtain stem cells for injection into their biggest selling commodity, laboratory mice.
Like Opus Dei, Monaghan dreams of building a New Jerusalem, here on earth. But Ave Maria is not a Catholic town much less "God's town."
As its happened, Monaghan and Co. hired Haas to bail him and his business partner, the Barron Collier Co., out. Haas received a substantial payment for this service.
Hass produced two papers for them: "Background on Position of The National Catholic Bioethics Center for Land Transaction for The Jackson Laboratory," and "Brief Summary of the Position of the National Catholic Bioethics Center of the Sale of Land by Thomas S. Monaghan to Barron Collier Co. Who Might Sell It to Jackson Laboratory." Both exonerated Monaghan and the Jackson Lab. Even after the USCL provided irrefutable evidence that the Jackson Lab in Sacramento, California, had received a $3.4 million contract from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to conduct stem cell research using human embryos, Haas insisted the Jackson Lab "was not guilty of the ethical and moral charges leveled against it."
In the end, following months of pro-life pressure, the Jackson Lab took their money and slinked back to Bar Harbor with its business tail between its legs – no thanks to Haas and the NCBC.
More on Roveraro's Other Apostolates
Roveraro was also connected to one of Opus Dei's most important business outlets in Italy – the RUI Foundation in Rome. It was created as an entrepreneurial apostolate in May 1959 by a group of Opus Dei members at the request of Escrivá. RUI's main occupation is the establishment and control of Italian men's dormitory/ residences like Warrane College in Australia mentioned above by Dubro. The foundation also acts as a holding company for Opus Dei's other international university residences and business branches on five continents.
Since its creation, more than 10,000 university students have passed through the portals of the civil institution. Obviously, it is an ideal recruitment vehicle for the Prelature since the young students from Italy and abroad are usually living apart from their families, especially their parents.
RUI enjoys a formal relationship with the Italian Minister of Education and the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Youth so it possesses all the right credentials.
RUI literature promotes the ideals of "righteous actions," "unselfish public service," "dialogue," "freedom," the acquisition of "knowledge" and "truth," and "human dignity." It awards prizes, scholarships and grants to Italian and foreign students of merit through its TalentLab where potential recruits can be screened for membership in Opus Dei and/or connected to high-level employment contacts via Opus Dei.
One of RUI's progenies is the ELIS Center, an acronym for Education, Labor, Instruction and Sport Center. It includes a large residence hall and catering school built next to the modernist Church of St. John the Baptist in Collatino and entrusted to Opus Dei by Paul VI. Both the parish church and the ELIS Center were inaugurated on November 21,1965, by Paul VI, who, according to Escrivá, wanted to dedicate the ELIS Center before the Second Vatican Council ended, "so that Bishops from all over the world could see how much he loved Opus Dei and people who need a better standard of living..."
Roveraro sat on the Board of another influential Opus Dei Apostolate, the international foundation called Progredi, whose aims include "the elevation of material and spiritual well-being" and "contributing... to an improved economic, social and cultural development in any country and in particular, developing countries."
Roveraro and the Parmalat Scandal
From 1990 to 1998, Roveraro served on the Board of Parmalat, the Italian billion-dollar dairy and food conglomerate, founded by Calisto Tanzi. Later, as chairman of Akros Finanziaria, Roveraro arranged to have Parmalat put on the Milan stock exchange.
One of Italy's greatest financial scandals broke out in 2003, when Parmalat, a joint stock company, fell into bankruptcy amid reports that its offshore accounts were 14 billion euros short, that is, non-existent. Thousands of small investors lost their money. Roveraro was one of 64 people under investigation in the Parmalat affair and prosecutors asked for him to be indicted on charges of belonging to a criminal organization conspiring in fraudulent bankruptcy, although there is no record he was ever indicted.
The bottom line is, that as a senior member of Opus Dei, Roveraro's financial dealings were intimately woven into Opus Dei finances. Roveraro never would have entered into any business arrangement, whether it be Biomedical University, or RUI or Paralat, without discussing it first with his lay spiritual director, and the director in turn discussed the matter with his Opus De controllers.
The Murder of Roveraro
As indicated earlier, Roveraro was kidnapped on the night of July 5, 2006, after leaving an Opus Dei residence in Milan.
The mastermind for the Roveraro murder was a real estate and financial associate of Roveraro named Filippo Botteri. The motive was money. Botteri had lost more than two million euros in a series of failed Austrian investments which Roveraro had set up, and he wanted his money back. Botteri was assisted by two friends, Emilio Toscani, a technology specialist who set up the special phones to relay the ransom message for one million euros, and Marco Baldi, a construction contractor who provided one of the cars involved in the kidnapping, and who eventually led the carabinieri paramilitary police to the location of the unburied decomposing and dismembered corpse.
Botteri, who later confessed to the killing, said that he shot Roveraro in the head on July 8, after he learned the Italian authorities had ordered the seizure of all family assets making the payment of the ransom impossible.
Roveraro's funeral took place at the Church of Santa Maria Segreta in Milan.
Giuseppe Corigliano, Opus Dei spokesman, would not confirm Roveraro's membership in Opus Dei, but stated that the financier has "already received the reward for his many virtues."
Gianmario Roveraro played Opus Dei's game of pilleria long and hard much to the Prelature's benefit. But there is always a price to be paid, and Roveraro paid with his life. There appears to be a warning here to all those numeraries and supernumeraries and cooperators who head up Opus Dei's many "apostolates" and play the game of pilleria on the world stage.
Journalist Rita Pennarola phrased it another way. "Because (the reason why), 'it is the motto of Opus – Even on Wall Street one can encounter God,' some, however, like Gianmario Roveraro, have encountered hell."
An Invitation to E. Michael Jones
Obviously, the many the issues of Opus Dei's view of a "Christianized capitalism" and its banking, financial and business "apostolates" and practices need additional investigation. I believe Culture Wars is a perfect venue for exploring them and other aspects of the Prelature targeted in my original essay if Dr. Jones is willing to pick up the gauntlet.
In the meantime, here is a list of questions, some with brief comments, related to The Man Behind the Curtain. Questions which only Jones can answer, and I hope he does. It is the least he owes his readers.
Background on Jones' Involvement with the Voris Controversy
Unfortunately, Jones provides no introduction in The Man Behind the Curtain which would inform the reader as to when, where and how the author first entered the loop of the Voris controversy. We still don't know the month and year that occurred. Nor do we know the circumstances related to the revelation. Nor do we know who it was that initially informed Jones of the crisis at ChurchMilitantTV.
Here are some other facts we don't know.
When did Jones' first meet with Brammer and Nicholson and/others to discuss the 2016 crisis?
When did Jones first learn that Voris had a homosexual history and was HIV-positive? Who informed him of this fact?
When did Jones begin his own research and investigation into the Voris affair? How long did it take to complete the investigation of the main players and events surrounding the Voris expose?
I don't know the answer to this last question, but I suspect Jones' own investigation was minimum at best and non-existent at worse.
The reason I raise the issue is because Jones used Msgr. Tony Anatrella as one of his resources on the traits of homosexuals in The Man Behind the Curtain. Now the news that Antrella was a predator homosexual cleric became international news in May 2016. Charges and rumors of Antrella's criminal activities existed for years before this. There are currently four accusers against Antrella. All of them are former seminarians. If Jones had made any attempt to update his source in preparation for his book, he would have come across the explosive Antrella scandal and, my guess is he would not have used the monsignor as an authoritative source on homosexuality. Since he did use Antrella's name suggests that Jones did very little of his own research in preparation for the book.
Throughout his e-book, Jones quoted information from certain e-mails in his possession. But he never reveals who provided him with these e-mails and when.
When did Jones interview the key players in the Voris controversy including Jones' BFF Terry Carroll, Frank Coan, Fr. Paul Nicholson and Marc Brammer?
Questions on an Errant Timetable
One of the things I did in reviewing Jones' The Man Behind the Curtain was to sketch out a rough draft of the author's timetable for the major events covered in the book. There are two years that stand out in that timetable – 2012 and 2016.
Let's review the timetable presented by Jones for 2012.
Let's begin with Jones' claim that Nicholson did not inform Brammer (and Opus Dei) of Voris' homosexual past until 2016.
I don't think this is true. Rather, I believe that Brammer knew much earlier, perhaps as early as 2011 or 2012.
Because dear reader, IF the devoted Opus Dei associate priest Father Nicholson knew about Voris' homosexual past in February 2012, you can be sure that Brammer and Opus Dei knew about it about the same time. And once Opus Dei knew their supernumerary Marc Brammer had hitched up with a less-than moral business partner, whose homosexual past was most certain to be exposed at some time, Opus Dei told Brammer to cut his connection with Voris and he did.
Since Opus Dei selects its priests from its own numeraries, and numeraries live under constant observation and control for years before their ordination, and spiritual directors are quick to report men with sexual aberrations, homosexuality and its handmaiden pederasty have not been major problems for the Prelature. Psycho-sexual problems? Yes. Homosexuality? No. But Opus Dei has had to pay a price for its Orwellian surveillance practices.
The extraordinarily means to which Opus Dei will go to ferrate out a suspected homosexual from its ranks is demonstrated by the Father Vladimir Felzmann story relayed to writer Michael Walsh, author of Opus Dei – An Investigation into the Powerful, Secretive Society Within the Catholic Church (1989).
Father Felzmann told Walsh that he was a senior Opus Dei numerary, turned priest, who was living in England at the time of the incident. Felzmann said he regularly heard the confessions of Opus Dei members. One day, the priest was approached by an Opus Dei official who wanted to know why Felzmann had not reported to Opus Dei headquarters in Rome the name of a member who had confessed the sin of homosexuality. The priest replied that would mean breaking the Seal of Confession (which incurs an excommunication latae sententiae). The Opus Dei officer angrily replied that as an alternative to breaking the seal, Felzmann should have withheld absolution from the member and arranged for him to confess his sin to his lay spiritual director, in order that the information could be used against the man, who presumably would have been dismissed from Opus Dei. Felzmann, now on the verge of tears, said that was still a form of breaking the seal and again refused. The officer sharply rebuked him for his lack of loyalty to the Prelature.
On August 15, 1981, Father Felzmann made the decision to leave Opus Dei to find God. He later was incardinated as a diocesan priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster.
Since Nicholson, like Brammer believes that God sent Opus Dei to save the Church, and since Nicholson had no compunction about revealing the sordid details of Voris' secret homosexual life to Jones for publication, my guess is that Opus Dei and Brammer and others at RealCatholicTV knew the truth in 2012, although Voris' readership at large, did not. And that was the prime impetus for the Brammer/Voris 2012 break-up
But we still are left in the dark as to how and why Brammer returned to the scene of the crime in 2016 except, possibly, to try and get back his original $250,000 investment for his Opus Dei apostolate, RealCatholicTV. Jones certainly makes the point that he believes Brammer should get his investment back. Or, perhaps, Opus Dei feared that the up-coming revelations of Voris' homosexual past would someday come back to bite it in the rear.
Speaking of money, I've been waiting for E. Michael Jones' apostolate, Ultramontane Associates, to file its IRS returns for 2016 to learn how much Jones made on his Amazon e-book venture. But it hasn't been posted on GuideStar. Sorry about that.
But since I am on the subject of Jones' public charity, I did want to make note of something that I did not include in the original article, "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," related to the founding of Ultramontane Associates, publishers of The Man Behind the Curtain. This has to do with the figure of South Bend attorney and Notre Dame graduate, Richard B. Urda, Jr.
Attorney Urda came to my attention when I was reviewing Brammer's Opus Dei apostolates, specifically Greenstar Enterprises and RealCatholicTV. Urda was the Registered Agent for both.
Later, when I was looking over the Articles of Incorporation of Jones' Ultramontane Associates, Inc. (Fidelity Press), I noted that Brammer's attorney for his Opus Dei apostolates, was also Jones' attorney as the Incorporator Designate and Registered Agent for his publishing business. Both Opus Dei and Ultramontane Associates share the same National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) Classification – Roman Catholic Religious Organizations (X22), 509(a) (2).
And more importantly, was the fact that that the ruling for Jones' business:
But never mind. It's probably just a coincidence that Jones should incorporate Ultramontane Associates as a religious public charity meaning it is not only free from federal and state taxes but also any donations to Ultramontane Associates are tax-exempt just like Opus Dei.
Bringing Down the Voris/Jones Curtain
My last questions and commentary centers upon one of Jones' comments found in his April 20, 2017 response in which he states that my article on the Voris/Jones affair is "full of factual errors, like the alleged location of a nonexistent Opus Dei center in Ferndale, Michigan..."
Now how would Jones, who has virulently disavowed any recent contact with Opus Dei, know that the Opus Dei center did not exist? Is the little Opus Dei birdie, Marc Brammer still whispering sweet nothings in his ear? And don't tell me that Jones finally decided to do some research of his own and contacted the Archdiocese of Detroit to find out the truth of the matter.
I don't think he did contact the Archdiocese. But I did, many times over a period of more than four months to try and establish, once and for all, the truth or falsity of the matter.
Readers may recall the particulars of that charge concerning the presence of Opus Dei at Voris' Ferndale studio starting in or about 2006, but here is a review for those who may have passed over it since it appeared at the very end of my lengthy article.
First, I noted that the Detroit Archdiocese is one of the major U.S. dioceses where Opus Dei has failed to make major headway.
Second, I pointed out that in or about 2006, without the knowledge of then Archbishop Cardinal Maida of Detroit, Opus Dei secretly set up a center at 22007 Woodward Avenue in Ferndale, Michigan where they established an oratory (meditation room) or chapel (where the Blessed Sacrament was held in reserve). The location was not the usual Opus Dei residence. The young men lived nearby in a residential home, but they worked at the Woodward address.
Although the Prelature is required to obtain the prior permission of the Ordinary for the establishment of a canonically-erected center, this is not a requirement for a dependent/subordinate non-canonically erected center. Opus Dei is a universal diocese without geographic boundaries and can redefine its boundaries to suit its purpose. And it did just this in Detroit.
The result was that it wasn't until early 2012 that Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, who had replaced the retired Archbishop Maida, discovered the existence of the Opus Dei oratory/chapel and eventually closed it down. If the reader will recall, that was about the same time that the Archbishop Vigneron told Voris and Brammer to remove the name Catholic from RealCatholicTV.
I should point out that when I first came upon this information, it contained no reference to the fact that the Woodward address was the same address as Michael Voris' studio. But I remembered the address of Voris' old studio which housed St. Michael's Media, RealCatholicTV, Concept Communication, LLC and Concept Productions and checked it out against articles I had on file. I also sent Voris an e-mail in which he cordially indicated that was his old address before he moved to his new and modern production studio on Hilton Road in Ferndale in June 2012.
What does this all mean?
If true, it means that Michael Voris had an established relationship with Opus Dei prior to his meeting with Marc Brammer in 2008 and the setting up of RealCatholicTV in mid-2008. And that relationship opens up the door to the possibility that St. Michael's Media was an Opus Dei Apostolate as was Brammer's RealCatholicTV. It would also explain a lot of other things like how Opus Dei associate priest Fr. Paul Nicholson ended up at Voris' studio.
I say, "if true" because after "The Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," appeared, not only did Jones issue a denial of the existence Opus Dei's presence at the Voris' Ferndale studio, but I also received several e-mails from Voris also denying the entire incident.
What I thought rather peculiar about their responses was that while these two supposed enemies should come out swinging in favor of Opus Dei's "non-existence" at Voris' studio, Opus Dei did not issue any formal denial that the incident did not occur. It makes one wonder if the whole Voris/Jones affair was just one gigantic farce.
What Jones and Voris were not aware of, however, was that I had already been in touch with the Archdiocese of Detroit in order to get either a confirmation or a denial of the sequence of events regarding Opus Dei's activities in Ferndale as I had outlined in my initial letter to Archbishop Vigneron of March 20, 2017. I followed up my letter with a number of e-mails and phone calls made over the last three months.
To date, neither Archbishop Vigneron nor any representative of the Archdiocese of Detroit has responded to my request for a denial or confirmation on the Opus Dei matter. It may be that the Opus Dei managed to get the entire sordid matter put under seal.
I don't know. But until I do, I'll stand by my story as written.
The ball is now in the multi-layered ballpark of Opus Dei, Michael Voris, E. Michael Jones and the Archdiocese of Detroit.
A Word of Warning
I received almost 400 e-mails after "The Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain" appeared. This follow-up article is probably the last I will write on the subject – at least for now. But, I'd like to leave the reader with this warning.
Many centuries ago, St. Jerome in his Dialogue Against the Luciferians, 19 wrote a most remarkable comment on Arianism which remains with us till this very day – "The whole world groaned and marveled to find itself Arian."
Let us pray that one morning Catholics do not wake to find ourselves in the Church of Opus Dei.
© Randy Engel
July 13, 2017
July 2017
On April 20, 2017, E. Michael Jones posted the following letter to my earlier commentary "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," a study of the role played by the Prelature of Opus Dei in the sordid Michael Voris affair as described in Jones' e-book The Man Behind the Curtain: Michael Voris and the Homosexual Vortex.
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Response to Randy Engel
by E. Michael Jones
Randy Engel recently posted a lengthy column on at least two websites, here and here, addressing publication of my e-book The Man Behind the Curtain: Michael Voris and the Homosexual Vortex. What follows is the response that I sent to her on April 20, 2017.
Dear Randy,
I am not a member of Opus Dei, nor do I have any ties "concrete" or otherwise to that organization. Once upon a time I attended evenings of reflection at the local center, but more recently I was banned from speaking at Opus Dei's Catholic Information Center in Washington. I have friends in Opus Dei. Marc Brammer is one of them. Another Opus Dei friend was warned by the American prelate not to have anything to do with me. Fortunately, he didn't follow that advice. I have no intention of distancing myself from my friends even if their organization has distanced itself from me.
At this point, I have a question. Why would an organization like Opus Dei want to be associated with someone with my views? Opus Dei is probably the world's most prominent purveyor of neoconservative Catholicism, not just here but throughout the world. Why would a group like that want me as a member? Do you think that hobnobbing with the author of The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit is going to enhance Opus Dei's image in the halls of power in Washington or New York? I don't think so. Nor do they, which is why they do whatever they deem necessary to avoid any contact with me. Opus Dei is happy to invite George Weigel, but Father Stetson showed what he thought of me when he unilaterally canceled the book signing I had at the Catholic Information Center.
This brings me to the really pernicious aspect of your expose. It's not simply that it's full of factual errors, like the alleged location of a nonexistent Opus Dei center in Ferndale, Michigan. Your article is suffused with the sense that personal friendship, far from transcending political differences, is reason to denounce someone for what someone else does or believes. Since you could not make a connection between me and Opus Dei and the sordid story of Church Militant on factual or principled grounds, you had to stoop to guilt by association. Are we now supposed to be judged by our associations instead of what we believe and say and do? As someone I admire once said, "If what I said is false, point out the error. If what I said is true, why do you strike me?"
Why am I responsible for someone else's activities? Who made you the judge of my friendships? This is the way the Pharisees treated Jesus when he ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. Was Jesus contaminated by his association with them? Am I somehow contaminated by my friendship with Marc Brammer? Or, more importantly, is he somehow contaminated by his association with me? I'm sure there are people in Opus Dei who think so, but I don't and don't think Jesus would either.
If this is not the case, why have I been subjected to the same pharisaical strictures which the Jews imposed on Jesus? Who put you in charge of my relationships? The answer to all of these questions is the schismatic lack of charity that pervades traditionalist circles. In his treatises on Donatism and Baptism, St. Augustine defined schism as refusal to associate with the body of Christ out of lack of charity and fear of contamination. Bishop Fellay expressed this fear when he said, "the church has cancer. We can't associate with the church because then we would get cancer."
Now I am subjected to the same intolerable lack of charity by you. This is not the way I run my life. To the point, Bishop Williamson stayed at my house twice. Does this establish "concrete ties" with the Society of St. Pius X? Does it make me a closet Lefebvrite? Or is it an indication that personal friendship can sometimes transcend ideological difference? Is that what you're trying to preclude? If so, I reject your attempt to do so and the stunning lack of charity and narrow-mindedness that prompted you to make the attempt.
Please post this response on your website.
Thanks,
Mike
Let me begin with a comment about Jones' main charge which appears to be that I was critical of his personal friendships.
In "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," I asked Jones, both directly and indirectly, several questions including why he didn't identify Marc Brammer, a key player in The Man Behind the Curtain, as the Vice-President of Jones' Ultramontane Associates, Inc., as a supernumerary of Opus Dei, and as a potential business associate in a media venture of Brammer's Institute for New Media.
I was not critical of Jones' thirty-year friendship with Brammer per say, but I did rightly question Jones' professional relationship with the Opus Dei supernumerary which might have biased Jones' opinion in favor of Brammer in the telling of the Voris affair.
Neither was I critical of Jones' friendship with Father Paul Nicholson, Voris's spiritual director.
But I, along with many readers of The Man Behind the Curtain, was critical of Jones' revelations of the intimate details of Voris' past homosexual escapades as revealed to him by Fr. Nicholson. Clearly, these details were revealed to the priest either under the seal of confession or under spiritual direction.
A point on this matter that I did not include in my original story is that a violation of the "penitential secret," as opposed to a violation of the "penitential seal," in which "anyone who records, using any technical instrument, or who divulges, through any means of social communication , that which is said by the confessor or by the penitent in the Sacrament of Confession, whether it be true or false, learned by one's own means or from a third party, will incur an excommunication latae sententiae.."
Dr. Jones, therefore, may have shared in the guilt of Fr. Nicholson by publishing, for the world to see, the sins revealed to the priest by Voris.
For the record, this reference on the violation of the "penitential secret," is taken from the Exegetical Commentary of the Code of Canon Law, prepared under the responsibility of the Instituto Martin De Azpilcueta (Author), Angel Marzoa (Editor), Jorge Miras (Editor), Rafael Rodriguez-Ocana (Editor), University of Navarre (Opus Dei), Volume III/1, 2004.
Again, I questioned why Jones didn't reveal that Nicholson was an associate Opus Dei priest?
Nor was I critical of Jones' relationship with Frank Coan, another key player in his e-book. However, I did indeed raise the question as to why Jones failed to mention that Coan was Brammer's silent partner in at least three media ventures including RealCatholicTV, the Institute for New Media and Greenstar Productions, LLC. Further, in his response to my article, Jones never answered the question as to Coan's relationship, if any, to Opus Dei, since RealCatholicTV was an Opus Dei media apostolate. It makes one wonder how much research Jones did himself and how much of his timeline and facts were spoon fed to him by the Opus Dei duet of Nicholson and Brammer.
In summary, to be loyal and faithful to one's friends is indeed a virtue. But it ceases to be a virtue when said friendships blinds a person to the evils and abuses perpetrated by the entity in question, in this case, Opus Dei, to which many of the characters in The Man Behind the Curtain have pledged their lifelong fidelity and devotion.
I think it rather passing strange that, based on Jones' total response, it would appear that he believes it is an attack upon his character to suggest that he is associated with Opus Dei. Why is that?
Why is it that if you asked a person if he or she, let's say, is a Third Order Dominican or Third Order Franciscan, you'll quickly get a yes or no reply. If yes, the person may ask if you are interested in the Order and offer you some literature or invite you to a public meeting of their apostolate.
But if you ask a man or women you think is associated with Opus Dei, excluding those who by permission represent the "public face" of Opus Dei like Marc Brammer, "Are you a member of Opus Dei?" you are often met with a blank stare and perhaps a wall of silence or simply a lie, as if you had just asked them, "Are you a Mafioso?" Why is that?
What Jones and Opus Dei Have in Common
In his April 20th response, Jones states that he is not a member of Opus Dei nor does he have any ties "concrete" or otherwise to that organization. Interestingly, he answers a question I never asked of him in my article, "Are you a member of Opus Dei?"
I accept his statement of non-membership in Opus Dei, although I don't agree that he has no ties, including philosophical ties, whatsoever to the Prelature.
Jones does admit that "once upon a time" he attended evenings of recollection "at the local center." What's the matter, Michael? Opus Dei still got your tongue? Why do you still seem to have difficulty spitting out the word "Windmoor," as in the Windmoor Opus Dei Study Center in South Bend near the Notre Dame campus where Michael Voris first met Marc Brammer in 2008, and the idea for RealCatholicTV was incubated?
Jones clearly states that he and Opus Dei, which he describes as "the world's most prominent purveyor of neoconservative Catholicism, not just here, but throughout the world," have little to nothing in common. However, as any reader of his Voris exposé will recall, Jones and the Prelature of Opus Dei appear to share several world views including a distaste for the Catholic Traditionalist Movement, as well as a desire to "Christianize" capitalism.
I was surprised to note that Jones identified Opus Dei disapprovingly as a part of "neoconservative Catholicism." But Opus Dei Brammer, in his March 5, 2011 e-mail to me, states that both he and Jones "have an equal distaste for neo-cons across both major political parties." Does Brammer's criticism also apply to the Prelature of Opus Dei as described above by Jones? I wonder because in that same e-mail, Brammer states he had had other media collaborations which he was equally excited about, one involving Jones and that the two men were planning a joint venture with the release of Jones' book on Capitalism later that year.
Brammer said "It has the potential of being a game changer," and went on to suggest that Jones would "highlight evil forces within the secular culture that can look to Church tradition for better guidance including just wages and just prices."
Gee. Speaking of just wages, do you think that Jones might possibly look into Opus Dei's modernized version of indentured servants, aka, its numerary assistants/auxiliaries who are young, unmarried women, often poor and foreign-born, who are recruited and trained to work for long hours at slave wages in Opus Dei residences and centers?
Multiple lawsuits have been filed in Paris courts by a French woman, Catherine Tissier, now 45, who charges that she was subject to years of abuse as an auxiliary numeraire to Opus Dei.
According to Tissier, in 1985, when she joined the Dosnon Hotel School, and the adjoining International Center for Meetings of Couvrelles in France at the age of 14 to train for hospitality work, neither she nor her parents were ever told that ACUT, the university and technical culture association that runs the school, was tied to Opus Dei.
When her assigned "spiritual director" pressed her to join Opus Dei and take vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, she agreed, but she was not permitted to tell her parents. Opus Dei restricted her visitation rights to go home to once a year.
For 13 years, Tissier worked from 7am to 10pm, cleaning, washing and other domestic chores in Opus Dei residences and meeting places. When feeling unwell, an Opus Dei physician treated her with anti-psychotic drugs. What remained of her monthly wages was almost nothing as Opus Dei extracted payment for her rent, food, and clothing. When her parents finally rescued her from Opus Dei her bank account was 10 euros. Her weight was 86 pounds.
The first of the Tissier trials took place on September 22-23, 2011, after a 9-year probe of the Opus Dei facilities. Members Claire de Segonzac and Agues Duhal were acquitted of charges of "mental manipulation," and "illegal employment." This verdict got wide coverage by the international press. Tissier's lawyers appealed.
In a ruling of March 26, 2013, the Paris Court of Appeals found ACUT and the Dosnon Hotel School and Opus Dei members, de Segonzac and Duhal, guilty of concealment of employees and insufficient remuneration for the work of a vulnerable or dependent person. ACUT was heavily condemned and fined 75,000 euros and the members 3,000 euros each. This court ordered two of Paris largest newspapers, Le Figaro and La Croix to disseminate the judgment. It is unclear if Opus Dei appealed the ruling.
Do you think Jones might do a follow-up story on the Tissier Case in Culture Wars?
Returning to the Brammer-Jones media plans on Capitalism, in the late fall of 2011, Brammer appeared on the Dennis O'Donovan talk show where he again discussed the possibility of hiring Jones for his upcoming new Opus Dei venture, the Institute for New Media, incorporated by Frank Coan and Brammer and Brammer's wife, Linda on February 17, 2012. One of the suggested topics to be addressed by Jones was the "reform" of Capitalism, no doubt along Opus Dei lines.
So, despite Jones' protestations, Brammer and Opus Dei and Jones must have had something in common when it comes to the "reform" of Capitalism, at least in past years.
Jones' views on Capitalism are well known to the readers of Culture Wars, but Opus Dei's plans for carrying out this "reform" are not as well-known especially to those who have been led to believe that Opus Dei is simply a "supernatural and spiritual organization" dedicated to the "sanctification" of work and the multiplication of "apostolates," and that it does not involve itself in worldly affairs including business management and financial enterprises.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. And the truth is that Opus Dei's goal of "building the kingdom of God on earth" will take a great deal of business acumen and an endless supply of money to achieve.
In the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. John, Our Lord announces before Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." John 18: 36. But Opus Dei believes otherwise and has its own plans to reconcile the world to God by building an earthly paradise here and now.
Robert Hutchison Lays the Groundwork
In Their Kingdom Come – Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei, Canadian financial investigative journalist Robert Hutchison explains the necessity and origin of Opus Dei's movement toward financial hegemony largely through the mechanism of foreign trade and foreign holdings (shell/off-shore companies) which produce hidden profits to be distributed at will by Opus Dei where needed. The Prelature's ostensible goal is to harness the international monetary system to spread the Gospel message. But not all the means it uses to achieve this goal, as documented by Hutchison, is "Good News."
Quoting in part, the sentiments expressed by Professor Javier Sainz Moreno of Madrid University who refers to Opus Dei as "a financial multinational," and not "a spiritual organization," Hutchison states, "... Opus Dei members believe strongly that Gods spoke to Moses, and also to Escrivá de Balaguer, but that money speaks to the world."
According to Hutchison, the period of the internationalization of Opus Dei after 1940 corresponded to the influx of large amount of cash flowing into the organization primarily from the expansion of membership to include married men and women, that is, supernumeraries, who pledge their fidelity and a significant portion of their income to the Work.
Capital, however, must be managed, and Opus Dei soon discovered the necessity of setting up banks and the need to establish a parallel financial network that permitted Father José María Escrivá de Balaguer to circumnavigate stringent capital transfer restrictions. Opus Dei numeraries were assigned to various countries to develop foreign trade outlets.
Because Opus Dei apostolates, including its business and financial apostolates are generally exempt from paying taxes, and donations to these apostolates are also tax deductible, and are free from standard tax reporting requirements, they have a financial advantage over their purely secular competition.
This parallel financial network mimics Escrivá's vision of Opus Dei as a parallel church, a Church within a Church, free from ecclesiastical control and governed by a quasi-religious priesthood selected exclusively from its own secular numeraries and an elite force of Opus Dei technocrats – intellectuals, academics, economists, scientists, and business and banking entrepreneurs who have been "called" by God "to save the Roman Catholic Church."
IESE and the Business World of Opus Dei
The Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa, known as IESE, has been part of Opus Dei's financial apparatus for more than fifty years.
In 1958, two Opus Dei numeraries created a private business management apostolate in Barcelona, Spain, which was strategically attached to Opus Dei's University of Navarre in Pamplona, and later to the Harvard Business School. They obtained a $50,000 grant from the Banco Popular Español which is one of Spain's largest banks. IESE was created by Opus Dei to serve as a model of humanized Capitalism that operates on traditional Christian ethics but uses modern scientific and business management principles.
Today, IESE's MBA business courses have been ranked as among the best in the world by Financial Times and The Economist. IESE boosts a business alumni network of 40,000 of the world's top business managers and global executives including a significant number of Opus Dei numeraries, supernumeraries and cooperators who have graduated from IESE. Its graduates also include non-Catholics – Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists and agnostics.
Up until 2016, the dean of IESE has always been a Spanish member of Opus Dei. The new dean is German-born Franz Heukamp who now presides over the school's Executive Committee which is in charge policy and curriculum development, faculty hiring, investments and program portfolio. Opus Dei numeraries and supernumeraries are included in the large academic and administrative staff of IESE.
In recent years, IESE has expanded its international outreach program into the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Mideast, and Africa. The latter is a special target for Opus Dei expansion into Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Angola. IESE campus extensions and training facilities are found in Madrid, Munich, Sao Paulo and New York City. The latter IECE facility in midtown Manhattan also includes the Institute for Media and Entertainment which trains corporate executives in the communication field and industry leaders from top media corporations including Disney, Time Warner and Viacom.
As a business school, IESE draws financial support from international businesses, private donors and multi-national corporations including Barclays, Nissan and the Rothchilds.
Officially, Opus Dei eschews its normal heavy-handed recruitment methods at the graduate business institution although any pious male Catholic found hanging around the ground floor modernistic chapel is always fair game. However, when dealing with older and more seasoned businessmen and financiers a more subtle and sophisticated strategy is required.
Hutchison has reported that many of Opus Dei's best cadres have been formed at IESE and he explains how it all works:
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Upon graduation students became tracked in their own professions – and assisted if deemed appropriate – so that directly or indirectly they become associated with the Work. ... most willingly and enthusiastically participated in the process without thought as to whether they are being used. It was all very convivial, with nothing so crude as pressure ever being applied; after all, they were encouraged to believe that they belonged to an elite club.
In December 2010, Jeremy Hazelehurst of the Financial Times did a lengthy story on Opus Dei and IESE and he asked the same question. The consensus among IESE alumni was "not much."
Spanish-born Jack Valero, however, the public face of Opus Dei in the United Kingdom and co-founder of Catholic Voices UK media project, did provide some interesting comments to Hazelehurst on the connection between business success and the spiritual life as viewed through the eyes of a senior Opus Dei supernumerary:
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We love the world of business because it makes people happier and gives them a better life. It's good that people should improve their standard of living. If you are poor and spend your life working out how you are going to eat the next day, it is difficult to pray. That's why we must resolve poverty as fast as we can – so that people can have a relationship with God.
And certainly, helping to bring about fair wages and an improvement in working conditions and even a change of occupation for any man seeking to improve his economic position, is a praiseworthy endeavor.
But Valero's proposition, which suggests that the poor find it hard to pray, and somehow are disconnected from God because of their poverty, is truly beyond the pale. What an un-Christian concept and slap in the face and rebuke against Divine Providence. Where do you think Valero, who came into Opus Dei at the age of 16, got this witless, claptrap idea? Certainly not from Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who clearly chose to be born into poverty with a manger for His bed. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests: but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." Matthew 8:20.
Opus Dei Pilleria Comes in All Shapes and Sizes
While IESE fellows are urged to base their business practices on the highest standards of professionalism and accountability so as to be worthy leaders of business and society, in private practice, Opus Dei admits to the necessity of pilleria (dirty tricks) when warranted. Escrivá justified pilleria in business on the theory that "our life is a warfare of love, and for Opus Dei all is fair in love and war."
The following cases of Opus Dei's business ventures gone awry come in two different financial sizes. The first, the Dubro scandal, involved thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. The second, the Roveraro/Parmalat scandal involved billions of dollars/euros and murder most foul.
The Dennis Dubro Affair
Dennis Dubro was a young Catholic undergraduate student studying physics at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1969 when he was invited by a numerary friend to attend some meetings at the Opus Dei Harvard campus student resident center. MIT is just a 30 to 40-minute walk from Harvard University, which has been an important Opus Dei "fishing" and recruitment ground for more than fifty years.
In contrast to the secular environment of both universities, Opus Dei appeared to offer a safe haven by which Dubro could deepen his Catholic faith. And since the Church had given Opus Dei its stamp of approval the young man decided to join as a numerary member. Initially he did not read the fine print of his lifelong commitment because Opus Dei's statutes and constitution were not given him to read. As with Freemasonry, rules and regulations were gradually and methodically revealed to him.
Dubro was assigned an Opus Dei priest as his spiritual director and regular confessor. Later, he was assigned a lay spiritual director which meant a shift in the nature of his earlier spiritual direction which was covered under the seal of confession to the realm of "the confidence," which is not covered by the seal.
Well into his sophomore year, Dubro mistakenly informed his residence director that after completing his physics degree he planned on returning home to California and would be leaving Opus Dei. That's when he learned that he had committed himself for LIFE to Opus Dei.
As graduation approached and Dubro was considering plans for graduate studies, he was asked by his director to go to Australia to conduct his graduate work and to assist in a "corporate apostolate" at Warrane College, a large men's dormitory/residence administered by Opus Dei for students attending the University of New South Wales, a secular institution.
The men's residence was officially opened on June 13, 1971. Technically, it is an apostolate project of the Education Development Association, Australia, one of Opus Dei's many world-wide holding companies. In my original study "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," I included a section on the Education Development Association, Chicago, a U.S.-based Opus Dei holding company for numerous Opus Dei apostolates.
Prior to Dubro's arrival in 1974, there had been a spate of student riots turned violent at the Warrane facility in response to Opus Dei's strict lifestyle regulations. Part of Dubro's job was to try and mediate the difficulties between Opus Dei expectations and student demands and bring them together for a peaceful resolution. He was also assigned recruitment quotas and given a monthly list of one-time donors which he was to try and convert into regular donors.
There were frustrating moments for Dubro in carrying out his "apostolate," but the real trouble began when he was promoted to an office of government within Opus Dei – that of Bursar or Business Manager of Warrane College. He took the place of two Opus Dei supernumerary professional accountants who, unbeknownst to young Dubro, ultimately refused to continue to engage in a game of bookkeeping pilleria and had to be replaced.
Even though he had no accounting experience, Dubro was a fast learner and quickly assumed responsibility for the day-to-day operations, maintenance, budgets, and financial management of both the dormitory as well as Opus Dei's other apostolic operations. He also was appointed to the Opus Dei's local 5-member Council.
Mindful of all the lessons preached by Opus Dei on the necessity of honesty and integrity in business matters, Dubro was quite surprised to be told by his director on the day of his appointment as Bursur that Opus Dei didn't follow standard accounting practices because they were wasteful and legalistic. He was told rather to put all his energies into bringing souls into Opus Dei, that is, in recruiting new members.
It didn't take long for Dubro to learn that Opus Dei was cooking its books.
First, Dubro discovered that money was missing from the accounts. Also, he learned that the dormitory had been submitting false audits for years without the auditor in charge having examined the accounts before signing off on them. When Dubro attempted to correct some of the abuses he was put down by the senior directors. He was forbidden under the rubric of obedience from conducting his own investigation and even as Bursar, was denied access to all the accounting books.
One of the important observations that Dubro gleaned from the chaotic irregular bookkeeping procedures was that Opus Dei was laundering money for EDA, Australia, and transferring large sums to unspecified other sources.
After spending several months studying the numerous apostolates of EDA, Chicago, for my original article, there is no doubt in this writer's mind that Opus Dei uses its senior numeraries and supernumeraries for this same purpose.
Even though Dubro had always believed that in the fundamental charism of Opus Dei as the sanctification of professional work, he was now forced to admit that as Bursar of Warrane College, his Opus Dei directors had foisted upon him "work that could not be sanctified."
In the end, there was an independent audit. The outcome was a charge of "gross negligence." Dubro was made the scapegoat for Warrane College's financial irregularities and removed from office without being given any chance to defend himself. He then returned to his graduate studies at the University of New South Wales and completed his doctorate in polymer physics, and a post-doctorate in medical physics.
In 1986, Dubro was ordered back to the United States. One year later, in 1987, having given 17 years of service and income to Opus Dei, he was dismissed from the Prelature after being told that Opus Dei has the right to dismiss permanent members without intervention from the Vatican. This was a lie.
When the Vatican failed to react to his complaints, a canon lawyer-priest suggested he file a civil suit, which Dubro did. The suit, filed in New York, charged Opus Dei with fraud and breach of contract. In May 2008, the former Opus Dei numerary learned that his case had been dismissed due to a legal technicality related to the statute of limitations.
Unlike many former Opus Dei numeraries, Dubro, a nuclear engineer, now in his mid-60s, remains a member of the Catholic Church.
There are some additional comments by Dennis Dubro found in http://www.opus-info.org/index.php?title=Seventeen_Years_in_Opus_Dei which I wish to add before moving on to the "Roveraro Affair."
According to Dubro, one day the Regional Director (Australia), the second in command, explained to him and others that it was not wrong to cheat as long as you do it for God. The director said he had cheated on his medical exam to get ahead. Later, the Vicar paid Dubro a personal visit to make sure he got the point. He did, in spades.
As a low-level Opus Dei functionary, but with a persistent desire to know the truth, Dubro played a relatively minor role in the financial politics of Opus Dei as they played out at Warrane College. But to his credit, he was very much aware, earlier than most, that:
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Opus Dei intends to play in the high-class world scene. Many leaders in the world of business, the military and government know the rules of this game and play them to manage society. Opus Dei doesn't do any less.
My thanks to award-winning journalist Rita Pennarola of La Voce della Campania for her many ground-breaking articles on Opus Dei's international apostolate and financial operations including "Tutti Holding e Opus Dei" found at http://blogtestabug.blogspot.com/2010/12/tutti-holding-e-opus-dei.html.
Gianmario Roveraro Plays the Game
Gianmario Roveraro, a seventy-year old Opus Dei supernumerary, and former world-renowned financier, was kidnapped on the evening of July 5, 2006 at the Pagano metro stop following an evening of prayer and spiritual direction at the Opus Dei center in Milan. He was one of many wealthy and influential Italians known to be members of the sect.
The handsome and distinguished Roveraro was born in Albenga, on the Gulf of Genoa, in 1936 and was married to Silvana Canepa. The couple has three children, now grown. Neither his wife nor children ever saw Roveraro alive after that fateful night in July.
Gauging from his lengthy list of high-level financial and recruiting apostolates carried out for Opus Dei, it is probable that Roveraro was recruited at a young age, perhaps after his Olympic career as a high-jumper came to an end or after he had graduated with a degree in economics.
In 1961, at the age of 25, Roveraro began his financial career. Five years later he joined the Istituto Mobiliare Italiano (IMI), a state investment company serving institutional investors, financial networks, corporations, and government institutions, and supplying high-quality financial products and services.
In 1987, Roveraro left IMI and set up a banking services company – Akros Finaziaria. Among his 200 partners was Opus Dei member Ettore Gotti Tedeschi who later became president of the Vatican Bank (IOR). In 2012 Tedeschi, made international news when he was reportedly being investigated for money laundering. Shortly afterwards, the five superintendents of the IOR issued a non-confidence vote in Tedeschi and urged his termination. Among those casting a no vote against Tedeschi was American Carl Anderson, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus and a supernumerary of Opus Dei. Opus Dei's global financial and banking interlock gives a whole new meaning to "all in the family." The charges against Tedeschi were later dropped.
In 1997, Roveraro was forced into an early retirement when an Akros real estate deal, estimated to be worth 290 billion lire, fell through, and the firm had to be dissected and restructured. The prominent financier then started his own real estate business in Milan while continuing with his many other Opus Dei apostolates.
Roveraro's Ties to Opus Dei's Biomedical University
According to Italian reporter Rita Pennarola, as of June 1, 2006, Roveraro owned 364,715 shares of Biomedical University shares worth 36 million euros.
Biomedical University and its research hospital, and bioengineering and educational complex on the outskirts of Rome is an Opus Dei apostolate established in 1993. It also receives additional income from the European Union and the Italian public tax trough.
The Biomedical campus is a major recruitment arena for Opus Dei as well as a training ground and research facility for Opus Dei members. The president of the Board of Advisors is none other than Opus Dei numerary, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, former Vatican press secretary and a physician, psychiatrist and journalist in his own right. Dr. Navarro-Valls died in Rome on July 5, 2017.
The university promises as its cultural aim to restore to the biomedical sciences "the value of human life and the person as their central focus," but there is some evidence to suggest it might do otherwise.
Take the case of Dr. Raffaello Cortesini, a member of Opus Dei and a well-known Italian heart and organ transplantation surgeon who engendered negative international attention when he implanted chimpanzee organs into his human patients. Cortesini is the former President of the Medical Board that reviews potential miracles for the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He served on the staff of the Faculty of Medicine at the Università di Roma "La Sapienza, but was caught up in an organ trafficking scandal and eventually left Italy for a position at Columbia University in New York.
Then there is Opus Dei supernumerary and former Episcopal priest, John M. Haas, President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), a spin-off of the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center chartered in St. Louis, Missouri in 1972. The renamed center has relocated in Philadelphia, and Haas has become America's post-conciliar church's spokesman on moral and medical ethics.
Haas' professional resume, sans any identification he is an Opus Dei senior member, is impressive. His past positions include: a registered foreign agent for the Banco Nacional de México; John Cardinal Krol Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia; and Adjunct Professor at the (Opus Dei) Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and the Family, Washington, D.C. In 2006, he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life by Pope Benedict XVI. That membership was renewed in 2017 by Pope Francis. He is also a Knight of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.
In 2010, as Director of the U.S. Coalition for Life (USCL) this writer clashed with Haas over the plans of the Bar Harbor Jackson Lab, a notorious eugenic establishment, to build a facility on Tom Monaghan's Ave Marie property in Florida. The Jackson labs are known for their promotion of invitro fertilization and the cannibalization of human embryos to obtain stem cells for injection into their biggest selling commodity, laboratory mice.
Like Opus Dei, Monaghan dreams of building a New Jerusalem, here on earth. But Ave Maria is not a Catholic town much less "God's town."
As its happened, Monaghan and Co. hired Haas to bail him and his business partner, the Barron Collier Co., out. Haas received a substantial payment for this service.
Hass produced two papers for them: "Background on Position of The National Catholic Bioethics Center for Land Transaction for The Jackson Laboratory," and "Brief Summary of the Position of the National Catholic Bioethics Center of the Sale of Land by Thomas S. Monaghan to Barron Collier Co. Who Might Sell It to Jackson Laboratory." Both exonerated Monaghan and the Jackson Lab. Even after the USCL provided irrefutable evidence that the Jackson Lab in Sacramento, California, had received a $3.4 million contract from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to conduct stem cell research using human embryos, Haas insisted the Jackson Lab "was not guilty of the ethical and moral charges leveled against it."
In the end, following months of pro-life pressure, the Jackson Lab took their money and slinked back to Bar Harbor with its business tail between its legs – no thanks to Haas and the NCBC.
More on Roveraro's Other Apostolates
Roveraro was also connected to one of Opus Dei's most important business outlets in Italy – the RUI Foundation in Rome. It was created as an entrepreneurial apostolate in May 1959 by a group of Opus Dei members at the request of Escrivá. RUI's main occupation is the establishment and control of Italian men's dormitory/ residences like Warrane College in Australia mentioned above by Dubro. The foundation also acts as a holding company for Opus Dei's other international university residences and business branches on five continents.
Since its creation, more than 10,000 university students have passed through the portals of the civil institution. Obviously, it is an ideal recruitment vehicle for the Prelature since the young students from Italy and abroad are usually living apart from their families, especially their parents.
RUI enjoys a formal relationship with the Italian Minister of Education and the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Youth so it possesses all the right credentials.
RUI literature promotes the ideals of "righteous actions," "unselfish public service," "dialogue," "freedom," the acquisition of "knowledge" and "truth," and "human dignity." It awards prizes, scholarships and grants to Italian and foreign students of merit through its TalentLab where potential recruits can be screened for membership in Opus Dei and/or connected to high-level employment contacts via Opus Dei.
One of RUI's progenies is the ELIS Center, an acronym for Education, Labor, Instruction and Sport Center. It includes a large residence hall and catering school built next to the modernist Church of St. John the Baptist in Collatino and entrusted to Opus Dei by Paul VI. Both the parish church and the ELIS Center were inaugurated on November 21,1965, by Paul VI, who, according to Escrivá, wanted to dedicate the ELIS Center before the Second Vatican Council ended, "so that Bishops from all over the world could see how much he loved Opus Dei and people who need a better standard of living..."
Roveraro sat on the Board of another influential Opus Dei Apostolate, the international foundation called Progredi, whose aims include "the elevation of material and spiritual well-being" and "contributing... to an improved economic, social and cultural development in any country and in particular, developing countries."
Roveraro and the Parmalat Scandal
From 1990 to 1998, Roveraro served on the Board of Parmalat, the Italian billion-dollar dairy and food conglomerate, founded by Calisto Tanzi. Later, as chairman of Akros Finanziaria, Roveraro arranged to have Parmalat put on the Milan stock exchange.
One of Italy's greatest financial scandals broke out in 2003, when Parmalat, a joint stock company, fell into bankruptcy amid reports that its offshore accounts were 14 billion euros short, that is, non-existent. Thousands of small investors lost their money. Roveraro was one of 64 people under investigation in the Parmalat affair and prosecutors asked for him to be indicted on charges of belonging to a criminal organization conspiring in fraudulent bankruptcy, although there is no record he was ever indicted.
The bottom line is, that as a senior member of Opus Dei, Roveraro's financial dealings were intimately woven into Opus Dei finances. Roveraro never would have entered into any business arrangement, whether it be Biomedical University, or RUI or Paralat, without discussing it first with his lay spiritual director, and the director in turn discussed the matter with his Opus De controllers.
The Murder of Roveraro
As indicated earlier, Roveraro was kidnapped on the night of July 5, 2006, after leaving an Opus Dei residence in Milan.
The mastermind for the Roveraro murder was a real estate and financial associate of Roveraro named Filippo Botteri. The motive was money. Botteri had lost more than two million euros in a series of failed Austrian investments which Roveraro had set up, and he wanted his money back. Botteri was assisted by two friends, Emilio Toscani, a technology specialist who set up the special phones to relay the ransom message for one million euros, and Marco Baldi, a construction contractor who provided one of the cars involved in the kidnapping, and who eventually led the carabinieri paramilitary police to the location of the unburied decomposing and dismembered corpse.
Botteri, who later confessed to the killing, said that he shot Roveraro in the head on July 8, after he learned the Italian authorities had ordered the seizure of all family assets making the payment of the ransom impossible.
Roveraro's funeral took place at the Church of Santa Maria Segreta in Milan.
Giuseppe Corigliano, Opus Dei spokesman, would not confirm Roveraro's membership in Opus Dei, but stated that the financier has "already received the reward for his many virtues."
Gianmario Roveraro played Opus Dei's game of pilleria long and hard much to the Prelature's benefit. But there is always a price to be paid, and Roveraro paid with his life. There appears to be a warning here to all those numeraries and supernumeraries and cooperators who head up Opus Dei's many "apostolates" and play the game of pilleria on the world stage.
Journalist Rita Pennarola phrased it another way. "Because (the reason why), 'it is the motto of Opus – Even on Wall Street one can encounter God,' some, however, like Gianmario Roveraro, have encountered hell."
An Invitation to E. Michael Jones
Obviously, the many the issues of Opus Dei's view of a "Christianized capitalism" and its banking, financial and business "apostolates" and practices need additional investigation. I believe Culture Wars is a perfect venue for exploring them and other aspects of the Prelature targeted in my original essay if Dr. Jones is willing to pick up the gauntlet.
In the meantime, here is a list of questions, some with brief comments, related to The Man Behind the Curtain. Questions which only Jones can answer, and I hope he does. It is the least he owes his readers.
Background on Jones' Involvement with the Voris Controversy
Unfortunately, Jones provides no introduction in The Man Behind the Curtain which would inform the reader as to when, where and how the author first entered the loop of the Voris controversy. We still don't know the month and year that occurred. Nor do we know the circumstances related to the revelation. Nor do we know who it was that initially informed Jones of the crisis at ChurchMilitantTV.
Here are some other facts we don't know.
When did Jones' first meet with Brammer and Nicholson and/others to discuss the 2016 crisis?
When did Jones first learn that Voris had a homosexual history and was HIV-positive? Who informed him of this fact?
When did Jones begin his own research and investigation into the Voris affair? How long did it take to complete the investigation of the main players and events surrounding the Voris expose?
I don't know the answer to this last question, but I suspect Jones' own investigation was minimum at best and non-existent at worse.
The reason I raise the issue is because Jones used Msgr. Tony Anatrella as one of his resources on the traits of homosexuals in The Man Behind the Curtain. Now the news that Antrella was a predator homosexual cleric became international news in May 2016. Charges and rumors of Antrella's criminal activities existed for years before this. There are currently four accusers against Antrella. All of them are former seminarians. If Jones had made any attempt to update his source in preparation for his book, he would have come across the explosive Antrella scandal and, my guess is he would not have used the monsignor as an authoritative source on homosexuality. Since he did use Antrella's name suggests that Jones did very little of his own research in preparation for the book.
Throughout his e-book, Jones quoted information from certain e-mails in his possession. But he never reveals who provided him with these e-mails and when.
When did Jones interview the key players in the Voris controversy including Jones' BFF Terry Carroll, Frank Coan, Fr. Paul Nicholson and Marc Brammer?
Questions on an Errant Timetable
One of the things I did in reviewing Jones' The Man Behind the Curtain was to sketch out a rough draft of the author's timetable for the major events covered in the book. There are two years that stand out in that timetable – 2012 and 2016.
Let's review the timetable presented by Jones for 2012.
- In early 2012, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit ordered RealCatholicTV to remove the word Catholic, and owner Brammer complied over Voris' objections.
- Jones tells us that in February 2012 Father Nicholson learned that Voris was a homosexual and was HIV positive.
- As reported by Jones, in 2012 Brammer became aware that money was no longer coming through his RealCatholicTV business account in South Bend. Brammer says "It just happened." Jones lets the matter drop without further explanation. Why?
- Frank Coan, co-owner of RealCatholicTV, said he told Brammer in 2012 that there were irregularities in Voris' accounting books. Coan called Voris "a crook." Later, Brammer said he's glad he didn't participate in restructuring an illegal media structure.
- Jones reports that in June 2012 Brammer and Voris terminated their business relationship with RealCatholicTV. Terry Carroll states that the split was amiable. How could that possibly be if Voris was cooking the books?
- In the summer/fall of 2012 Voris created Church Militant. In the meantime, Brammer had already announced the creation of a new Opus Dei media apostolate, the Institute for New Media, and invited Jones to play a role in it.
- In 2012, it appeared that Brammer with his new "apostolate" – the Institute for New Media – and Michael Voris – with ChurchMilitantTV – had each gone their own way, amniable or not.
- According to Jones, it wasn't until early 2016 that Voris' homosexual past was revealed to Brammer by Father Nicholson. This knowledge, along with calls coming into the studio identifying Voris as a homosexual we were told by Jones, precipitated a crisis at Church Militant.
- In mid-2016, Marc Brammer took over the reins of the cabal to oust Voris and force his early retirement from ChurchMilitantTV. Jones devotes a substantial portion of the e-book to a day-by-day reenactment of these events and cites chapter and verse of the meetings and discussions leading to the attempted but failed insurrection which left Voris and Co. still in the driver's seat at ChurchMilitantTV, and Marc Brammer out in the cold with his Institute for New Media, and still out $250,000, his initial investment in RealCatholicTV.
- Jones never takes time to explain how Brammer garnered any legitimate authority whatsoever to mount a coup against Voris since we were led to believe that Voris and Brammer separated in 2012.
Let's begin with Jones' claim that Nicholson did not inform Brammer (and Opus Dei) of Voris' homosexual past until 2016.
I don't think this is true. Rather, I believe that Brammer knew much earlier, perhaps as early as 2011 or 2012.
Because dear reader, IF the devoted Opus Dei associate priest Father Nicholson knew about Voris' homosexual past in February 2012, you can be sure that Brammer and Opus Dei knew about it about the same time. And once Opus Dei knew their supernumerary Marc Brammer had hitched up with a less-than moral business partner, whose homosexual past was most certain to be exposed at some time, Opus Dei told Brammer to cut his connection with Voris and he did.
Since Opus Dei selects its priests from its own numeraries, and numeraries live under constant observation and control for years before their ordination, and spiritual directors are quick to report men with sexual aberrations, homosexuality and its handmaiden pederasty have not been major problems for the Prelature. Psycho-sexual problems? Yes. Homosexuality? No. But Opus Dei has had to pay a price for its Orwellian surveillance practices.
The extraordinarily means to which Opus Dei will go to ferrate out a suspected homosexual from its ranks is demonstrated by the Father Vladimir Felzmann story relayed to writer Michael Walsh, author of Opus Dei – An Investigation into the Powerful, Secretive Society Within the Catholic Church (1989).
Father Felzmann told Walsh that he was a senior Opus Dei numerary, turned priest, who was living in England at the time of the incident. Felzmann said he regularly heard the confessions of Opus Dei members. One day, the priest was approached by an Opus Dei official who wanted to know why Felzmann had not reported to Opus Dei headquarters in Rome the name of a member who had confessed the sin of homosexuality. The priest replied that would mean breaking the Seal of Confession (which incurs an excommunication latae sententiae). The Opus Dei officer angrily replied that as an alternative to breaking the seal, Felzmann should have withheld absolution from the member and arranged for him to confess his sin to his lay spiritual director, in order that the information could be used against the man, who presumably would have been dismissed from Opus Dei. Felzmann, now on the verge of tears, said that was still a form of breaking the seal and again refused. The officer sharply rebuked him for his lack of loyalty to the Prelature.
On August 15, 1981, Father Felzmann made the decision to leave Opus Dei to find God. He later was incardinated as a diocesan priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster.
Since Nicholson, like Brammer believes that God sent Opus Dei to save the Church, and since Nicholson had no compunction about revealing the sordid details of Voris' secret homosexual life to Jones for publication, my guess is that Opus Dei and Brammer and others at RealCatholicTV knew the truth in 2012, although Voris' readership at large, did not. And that was the prime impetus for the Brammer/Voris 2012 break-up
But we still are left in the dark as to how and why Brammer returned to the scene of the crime in 2016 except, possibly, to try and get back his original $250,000 investment for his Opus Dei apostolate, RealCatholicTV. Jones certainly makes the point that he believes Brammer should get his investment back. Or, perhaps, Opus Dei feared that the up-coming revelations of Voris' homosexual past would someday come back to bite it in the rear.
Speaking of money, I've been waiting for E. Michael Jones' apostolate, Ultramontane Associates, to file its IRS returns for 2016 to learn how much Jones made on his Amazon e-book venture. But it hasn't been posted on GuideStar. Sorry about that.
But since I am on the subject of Jones' public charity, I did want to make note of something that I did not include in the original article, "All the Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," related to the founding of Ultramontane Associates, publishers of The Man Behind the Curtain. This has to do with the figure of South Bend attorney and Notre Dame graduate, Richard B. Urda, Jr.
Attorney Urda came to my attention when I was reviewing Brammer's Opus Dei apostolates, specifically Greenstar Enterprises and RealCatholicTV. Urda was the Registered Agent for both.
Later, when I was looking over the Articles of Incorporation of Jones' Ultramontane Associates, Inc. (Fidelity Press), I noted that Brammer's attorney for his Opus Dei apostolates, was also Jones' attorney as the Incorporator Designate and Registered Agent for his publishing business. Both Opus Dei and Ultramontane Associates share the same National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) Classification – Roman Catholic Religious Organizations (X22), 509(a) (2).
And more importantly, was the fact that that the ruling for Jones' business:
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(9) An organization that normally receives: (1) more than 33 1/3 % of its support from contributions, membership fees, and gross receipts from activities related to its exempt functions – subject to certain exceptions, and (2) no more than 33 1/3 % of its support from gross investment income and unrelated business taxable income (less section 511 tax) from businesses acquired by the organization after June 30, 1975,
But never mind. It's probably just a coincidence that Jones should incorporate Ultramontane Associates as a religious public charity meaning it is not only free from federal and state taxes but also any donations to Ultramontane Associates are tax-exempt just like Opus Dei.
Bringing Down the Voris/Jones Curtain
My last questions and commentary centers upon one of Jones' comments found in his April 20, 2017 response in which he states that my article on the Voris/Jones affair is "full of factual errors, like the alleged location of a nonexistent Opus Dei center in Ferndale, Michigan..."
Now how would Jones, who has virulently disavowed any recent contact with Opus Dei, know that the Opus Dei center did not exist? Is the little Opus Dei birdie, Marc Brammer still whispering sweet nothings in his ear? And don't tell me that Jones finally decided to do some research of his own and contacted the Archdiocese of Detroit to find out the truth of the matter.
I don't think he did contact the Archdiocese. But I did, many times over a period of more than four months to try and establish, once and for all, the truth or falsity of the matter.
Readers may recall the particulars of that charge concerning the presence of Opus Dei at Voris' Ferndale studio starting in or about 2006, but here is a review for those who may have passed over it since it appeared at the very end of my lengthy article.
First, I noted that the Detroit Archdiocese is one of the major U.S. dioceses where Opus Dei has failed to make major headway.
Second, I pointed out that in or about 2006, without the knowledge of then Archbishop Cardinal Maida of Detroit, Opus Dei secretly set up a center at 22007 Woodward Avenue in Ferndale, Michigan where they established an oratory (meditation room) or chapel (where the Blessed Sacrament was held in reserve). The location was not the usual Opus Dei residence. The young men lived nearby in a residential home, but they worked at the Woodward address.
Although the Prelature is required to obtain the prior permission of the Ordinary for the establishment of a canonically-erected center, this is not a requirement for a dependent/subordinate non-canonically erected center. Opus Dei is a universal diocese without geographic boundaries and can redefine its boundaries to suit its purpose. And it did just this in Detroit.
The result was that it wasn't until early 2012 that Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron, who had replaced the retired Archbishop Maida, discovered the existence of the Opus Dei oratory/chapel and eventually closed it down. If the reader will recall, that was about the same time that the Archbishop Vigneron told Voris and Brammer to remove the name Catholic from RealCatholicTV.
I should point out that when I first came upon this information, it contained no reference to the fact that the Woodward address was the same address as Michael Voris' studio. But I remembered the address of Voris' old studio which housed St. Michael's Media, RealCatholicTV, Concept Communication, LLC and Concept Productions and checked it out against articles I had on file. I also sent Voris an e-mail in which he cordially indicated that was his old address before he moved to his new and modern production studio on Hilton Road in Ferndale in June 2012.
What does this all mean?
If true, it means that Michael Voris had an established relationship with Opus Dei prior to his meeting with Marc Brammer in 2008 and the setting up of RealCatholicTV in mid-2008. And that relationship opens up the door to the possibility that St. Michael's Media was an Opus Dei Apostolate as was Brammer's RealCatholicTV. It would also explain a lot of other things like how Opus Dei associate priest Fr. Paul Nicholson ended up at Voris' studio.
I say, "if true" because after "The Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain," appeared, not only did Jones issue a denial of the existence Opus Dei's presence at the Voris' Ferndale studio, but I also received several e-mails from Voris also denying the entire incident.
What I thought rather peculiar about their responses was that while these two supposed enemies should come out swinging in favor of Opus Dei's "non-existence" at Voris' studio, Opus Dei did not issue any formal denial that the incident did not occur. It makes one wonder if the whole Voris/Jones affair was just one gigantic farce.
What Jones and Voris were not aware of, however, was that I had already been in touch with the Archdiocese of Detroit in order to get either a confirmation or a denial of the sequence of events regarding Opus Dei's activities in Ferndale as I had outlined in my initial letter to Archbishop Vigneron of March 20, 2017. I followed up my letter with a number of e-mails and phone calls made over the last three months.
To date, neither Archbishop Vigneron nor any representative of the Archdiocese of Detroit has responded to my request for a denial or confirmation on the Opus Dei matter. It may be that the Opus Dei managed to get the entire sordid matter put under seal.
I don't know. But until I do, I'll stand by my story as written.
The ball is now in the multi-layered ballpark of Opus Dei, Michael Voris, E. Michael Jones and the Archdiocese of Detroit.
A Word of Warning
I received almost 400 e-mails after "The Men Behind the Opus Dei Curtain" appeared. This follow-up article is probably the last I will write on the subject – at least for now. But, I'd like to leave the reader with this warning.
Many centuries ago, St. Jerome in his Dialogue Against the Luciferians, 19 wrote a most remarkable comment on Arianism which remains with us till this very day – "The whole world groaned and marveled to find itself Arian."
Let us pray that one morning Catholics do not wake to find ourselves in the Church of Opus Dei.
© Randy Engel
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