Q & A: Internal Documents of Opus Dei
1 What does this website aim to do?
Here, I will publish over time the internal documents of Opus Dei, in their original Spanish with a parallel translation in English. I will use Google Translate, checked and edited by me.
The documents are indexed and linked here.
When I publish each document, I will also publish my own article which summarises the contents and adds critical insights, to add my own experience as a former celibate "numerary" of Opus Dei, to highlight the many moral problems with Opus Dei's practices, as well in some cases clear inconsistencies with Catholic doctrine and practice.
The articles are available here.
2 What are the internal documents of Opus Dei?
They are documents written by the founder of Opus Dei, Spanish Catholic saint Monsignor Josemaría Escrivá, his successor Monsignor Alvaro del Portillo, or by the Prelature of Opus Dei as a whole.
They provide "normative" guidance to Opus Dei leaders on the nature of Opus Dei and how it should be run. In other words, they act as binding interpretations of the public documents that apply (or should apply) to Opus Dei, namely the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the 1982 Statutes of Opus Dei, and the papal decree setting up Opus Dei as a Prelature in 1982 "Ut Sit".
Alternatively, it is often argued that these documents replace these public documents in practice.
The documents are the legal possession of the Prelature of Opus Dei and/or Scriptor S.A., its Spanish publishing arm; the latter asserts copyright in them.
3 Where can originals of these documents be found? Who has access to them?
They are kept under lock and key in the director's office of each centre of Opus Dei in the world. The director and priest of the centre have unfettered access to them. It is possible that other members of the "local council" of the centre have the same access but I am not sure of this as I was never a member of a local council.
Other celibate "numerary" members of Opus Dei living in centres (like I was) are given access by the director only to specific internal documents on a need-to-know basis. The need is usually preparing talks to give to other members. Other classes of members of Opus Dei do not generally have access to them as normally numeraries give talks. Though if others are asked to give talks, they will be.
4 Do diocesan priests, bishops and the Vatican have access to these documents?
I do not know the full picture here. Many ex-member activists of Opus Dei claim that the Prelature has systematically made them inaccessible to Catholic church authorities.
In any case, in 2022, a group of ex-members filed with the Vatican a formal complaint in canon law of fraud by Opus Dei. See in particular its first page : International_ecclesiastical_institutional_complaint_against_Opus_Dei_for_regulatory_fraud_against_the_Holy_See_and_the_members_themselves.pdf
The complaint was filed along with 46 internal documents and so from this at least, we can say that the Vatican has had copies since 2022.
In any case, these documents do not have an "imprimatur" or "nihil obstat", which means that the Catholic church has not officially approved them as Catholic. In fact, I am not aware of any official Catholic response to the existence or contents of these documents.
5 Have Catholic bishops in England expressed any unofficial concerns on any internal documents?
Yes. Back in 1980, there was a year-long investigation into Opus Dei by "The Times" of London. This involved Cardinal Hume, several Catholic chaplains of Oxford University, and other Catholic clergy. It culminated in a detailed article published on 12 January 1981. See Opus-Info - File:The Times Profile of Opus Dei - Jan 12,1981.pdf
The article states:
“Several senior Roman Catholic clergy have seen some or all of the material in The Times’ possession. One was a member of the English hierarchy; one an academic theologian, and a member of the Theological Committee of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference; and one holds a senior position in the Benedictine order. Their views coincided, that it [the Opus Dei spiritual reading material they saw] was “unhealthy” and psychologically and spiritually harmful.”
“Doubts were raised about the orthodoxy of some of the doctrine. They were satisfied that it was in the best interests of the Catholic church that it should come to light.” [emphasis added]
We can see that those English Catholic clergy who examined various internal documents of Opus Dei were sufficiently concerned to advocate for their publication. There has been no retraction of this position since then.
Cardinal Basil Hume, the Primate of All England at the time, was involved in the investigation and he coordinated the handling of complaints from across the country. The "Times" article was followed by the publication of his pastoral guidelines for Opus Dei in late 1981 - see Opus-Info - Guidelines for Opus Dei within the Diocese of Westminster These guidelines sought to prevent coercion in Opus Dei. The institution of Opus Dei in Britain at the time accepted the guidelines publicly but did not change its ways privately.
6 Has anyone else published these documents unofficially?
Initially, all known documents were published in the original Spanish by opuslibros.org , which is the largest website and support network for ex-members of Opus Dei, based in Spain. The full list is here, with links to those still available Documentos internos del Opus Dei
In 2013, Scriptor S.A. won a claim for breach of copyright in the Spanish commercial court. The judgment is here sentencia_publicar.pdf As a result, opuslibros.org had to remove from the website a large number of the internal documents, including the early "instructions" and many other written by the founder of Opus Dei. Since then, only pirate versions have been circulated privately.
One positive of the court case is that effectively the Prelature of Opus Dei has confirmed the authenticity of the documents.
7 Why are you publishing these documents and not Opus Dei or the Catholic church?
First of all, neither the Catholic church, the Prelature of Opus Dei nor its Spanish publishing arm, Scriptor SA, have ever published these documents. Nor have they, to my knowledge, given a reason for not doing so. Opus Dei authorities assert that there is no "secrecy" within Opus Dei but there is "discretion", which as I see it means secrecy when it suits them.
For me, it is highly irregular that a church organisation authorised by the Vatican should want to suppress the publication of writings of its founder and use civil law to do so. This is clearly a matter of morality, application of the values of the gospel, and church discipline but I have never seen any move by the Vatican to order Opus Dei to publish or publish themselves.
When I was in Opus Dei, these documents ruled my life. I now realise many of the restrictions on my rights as a lay Catholic that appear in internal documents. I realise that Opus Dei leaders operated by deceit and withheld this information from me because their practice on the ground was dictated by the internal documents that were often out of line with good morals, church teaching and practice e.g. expectations to hand over salary, no compensation for members who leave, requirement to open one's conscience weekly or bi-weekly to a spiritual director from Opus Dei and no one outside, mischief and manipulation in recruitment tactics.
Most current members of Opus Dei continue to be oblivious to the contents of these documents and their irregularity. Opus Dei leaders get away with this because they insist on obedience to them, on pain of fraudulent moral consequences. This is widespread abuse of conscience.
8 Are you not afraid of consequences of publishing?
I have already been in correspondence with lawyers for Scriptor S.A. and the Prelature - Mas y Calvet in Spain. They emailed me on 18 May 2026:
"Our clients, ‘Scriptor S.A.’ and the Prelature of Opus Dei, do not authorise the publication of the documents mentioned in your email. We have had to take legal action in cases of unauthorised publication and would do so again if necessary."
I expect these lawyers to take action against me and will cross that bridge in due course. One way or another, I am determined to get these documents published. If the opportunity arises, I will make a case in open court that there is a compelling public interest in their disclosure, especially given that some of the instructions in them border on the criminal, in my view.