Scribe Publications (Left), Adobe Stock (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Jack Valero, the press officer of Opus Dei UK and a Catholic journalist, said a recent book about the organization was based on a conspiracy theory.
The book, written by Gareth Gore, is titled Opus: Dark Money, a Secretive Cult, and its Mission to Remake Our World. Valero, who had spoken with Gore extensively about the project, wrote in the Mercator, “The book itself is littered with errors, distortions, and even outright lies.”
“I was convinced he was after the truth,” Valero said. “How wrong I was! His book is unremittingly negative, with no attempt at balance, and excludes anything that might contradict the author’s narrative.”
Gore had told Valero that the book was a biography of Opus Dei member Luis Valls Taberner (1926-2006), though he spent much of Opus focusing on Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, who is not a member of Opus Dei.
Valero pointed to two fundamental misconceptions of Gore’s that “severely limit the accuracy and usefulness” of Opus.
According to Valero, Gore refuses to accept that people join Opus Dei for “purely spiritual reasons” rather than power or greed and that Opus Dei members have freedom in regard to their personal lives.
Valero reports that Gore complained in the introduction that “almost every conversation would begin the same way: with the member of Opus Dei explaining how everyone within the organisation acted with complete freedom and that anything that any of them did … was of their own initiative and nothing to do with Opus Dei.”
Valero responded, “I was struck by this passage as this is exactly what I had said when I met Gore two years ago. I see now that he rejected it, as it would unravel the conspiracy theory on which the book is based.”
Then, Valero debunked Gore’s main accusation against Opus Dei. The book focused on a supposed scandal where Opus Dei stole millions from Banco Popular, a Spanish bank Valls Taberner ran.
Valero called the supposed fraud “totally false” and that “any serious study” would show that Valls Taberner conducted his business with honesty and integrity.
He continued by saying that Gore’s reports on Banco Popular were “surprisingly shoddy, given that he is a financial journalist.”
“Gore says Banco Popular was the most profitable bank in the world for 50 years: false, it was the most profitable bank in the world for a couple of years in the 1990s,” Valero began.
“Gore says the bank was controlled by a shadowy organisation called ‘The Syndicate,’ which was 100% controlled by Opus Dei: false, the syndicate preceded Valls Taberner and continued after his death,” Valero continued.
The syndicate “was totally open, anyone could join or leave it and most members were not linked with Opus Dei. Gore says that members of the syndicate voted twice: false, this was impossible and never happened.”
Valero then shared positive anecdotes about Valls Taberner, including the time he lent money to a struggling rehabilitated criminal, helping the man buy a motorcycle and start a small business.
“But you will not read stories like this in Opus as they are not about power and influence,” Valero wrote.
He concluded, “An academic in Spain has been collecting information for some years and plans to publish a proper biography of Luis Valls Taberner in 2026, to celebrate the centenary of his birth. I cannot wait to read it.”
