Opus Dei, Ep. 3: Snow on the mountaintops

Creators on both sides of the abortion divide converged on the Supreme Court today. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]

“This follows a political report that the Justices”

are focused to overturn the right to abortion that the court established nearly a half century ago. An early draft of a historic Supreme Court decision had just leaked. It suggested that Roe v. Wade was about to be overruled, and with it, the constitutional right to an abortion.

The document marked first draft and dated February 10th

was written by Justice Samuel Alito, one of the court's most conservative members and a frequent critic of Roe v. Wade. The argument was technically over how you interpret the law. But the result was one that religious organizations had been chasing for decades.

Like a lot of Americans, Katie Chenoweth was following the news online. Chenoweth is an associate professor of French at Princeton University. I saw a tweet come out by a colleague of mine, Robert

“George, who teaches in the politics department.”

And he was talking about the decision. Professor Robert P. George is a legal scholar.

The New York Times once called him America's most influential

conservative Christian thinker. He submitted a brief in the Supreme Court case, and his specific arguments were actually cited in the leaked abortion decision. George's tweet wasn't anything special.

But all of this sent Chenoweth down a rabbit hole. - Many Supreme Court justices, senators, presidents have come out of Princeton. So it's an institution where political power has been historically and continues to be sort of cultivated.

Everyone from Sonya sort of mayor to Ted Cruz to Michelle Obama. But I thought, well, who is this person who's my colleague,

just a few buildings over on the Princeton campus

who I don't really know much about? - George holds a number of academic titles at Princeton. But outside of his university office, he also has a role in a small, more quietly influential organization on campus.

One that's not officially part of Princeton, but that's housed in an elegant three-story building right at its center. - The Wetherspoon Institute is a self-described think tank that sits about a block away five minute walk

from the center of campus. - The building is Primrose Yellow with a wooden veranda and a manicured lawn. On its website, the Wetherspoon Institute says it provides intellectual and moral formation.

It runs seminars for students tackling contemporary debates through classical and Judeo-Christian traditions. - Educational programming around marriage, family, sexuality, promoting abstinence, anti-LGBTQ, anti-trans, trying to insist on extremely rigid

and traditional gender roles. - You might not have heard of Wetherspoon itself, but the people involved with the Institute, like George, have had significant political influence. Turn it with Doug into the back story.

- I wanted to figure out more about that history and it didn't take very long until that led me to Opus Day. - George is not an Opus Day member, but back in 2003, he helped set up with a spoon with a man named Luis Téez.

Téez was a new member of Opus Day, but not just that. He was actually one of its senior U.S. officials and I thought, well, that seemed significant, but a think tank would be founded here at Princeton by someone who was until he arrived at Princeton,

one of the national directors of Opus Day. That must mean that this is a significant place for them. And then it didn't take long to see that almost everyone, and certainly everyone in a leadership position at the Weather's Food Institute was giving talks

at Opus Day centers or had other demonstrable ties to Opus Day, and then I found that the last time that the prelet of Opus Day made a pastoral visit

“to the United States, which I believe was in 2019.”

- The prelet.

who'd come over from Rome.

These visits are a big deal.

“- And one of the presentations during his visit there”

was a presentation by scholars from the Weather's Food Institute, including Robbie George. - But on the Weather's Food's website, there's no mention of Opus Day anywhere. - The prelet of Opus Day is at the United States,

something like once a decade to major event, the prelet is not doing anything that is not directly related to Opus Day. And so I said to myself, oh, the Weather's Food Institute seems to be a de facto work of Opus Day

that in no way discoses itself as such. - Restrictive abortion laws were rolling out across U.S. states.

Campus politics were intensifying.

And Chenoweth was mapping connections between the ascendant conservative movement and Opus Day. - They're not being transparent about what their aims are and they're banking on the fact that, you know, 18-year-olds coming into these programs can't see that.

“- Chenoweth says that if Opus Day has a hidden influence”

at universities, that matters. Because she thinks we should know who's behind the big ideas and big debates that are shaping society. And what I found was that it wasn't just

that primarily yellow building at Princeton. It was much bigger than that. In conservative networks on campuses across the country, Opus Day just started cropping up everywhere. So what was it trying to achieve?

And why was it being so secretive about it? - People deserve to know not only who's funding these programs, but also what the goals and the ideology, motivating the program are.

The problem is that there are many former members

of Opus Day who have talked about their experience that make it clear that Opus Day runs much less of religious organization and in many respects,

“much more like what we're accustomed to calling”

a cult or a high control group. - From the financial times, this is Untold Opus Day. Episode three, snow on the mountain tops. - Oh, this is so interesting. I am on the homepage of the foundation

for Excellence in Higher Education website and I'm looking at this photo on the cover page. - That's Jack. You met him in the last episode. He left Opus Day recently after decades

as a newmery, meaning a celebrate member. - There are numerous sprinkled throughout this photo. - Jack spent most of his adult life in Opus Day. And on the website of the foundation for Excellence in Higher Education, or Fihi for short,

he recognized a lot of his Opus Day peers. Fihi was established in 2012 to take the Wither Spoon model nationwide. The men behind the idea were the same ones you heard about earlier. Luis Teyes, the senior Opus Day newmery,

and Robert George, the Princeton Legal scholar. Teyes, who's known as a bit of a charismatic networker, has been the driving force. Over the past 10 years, under the Fihi umbrella, a constellation of think tanks have popped up

beside other elite universities. Like Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Columbia. They're all independent nonprofits, but as I spoke to Jack, we sifted through the websites of these institutes

across the country, looking at their directors' connections to Opus Day. - He did join Opus Day as a newmery, and I did live with him. - Well known, Numerary.

Kind of regarded as a rock star. The leaves in Numerary, much older Numerary out in California. - In fact, every single institute in the Fihi network has directors who are Opus Day members. According to Fihi's website,

their mission is to renew elite universities and form tomorrow's leaders. Jack and I looked at the websites about page. - You click on the learn more, but nowhere do you see a mention of Opus Day?

- As he's reading this with me, Jack looks kind of anguished. He's almost wincing. - Their website is completely generic. The only thing I'm walking away from,

when I look at their website, is we have a presence at elite universities. You have absolutely no idea of what their political point of view is, much less who's behind it.

And their political point of view matters, because these think tanks don't just shape students' minds,

that provides the intellectual backbone

for policy arguments. During his time at Opus Day,

“Jack heard several people from the Fihi network”

give talks at Opus Day centers about their work. Like from the Austin Institute, a Fihi think tank at the University of Texas. - We have a gentleman from the Austin Institute who had published a study regarding outcomes

of children raised on the same sex households, versus outcomes of children raised in heterosexual households. And of course, the results of the study were that children from the same sex households

did not flourish, that outcomes were much worse. - That study would go on to receive widespread criticism from social scientists

who questioned its data and methodology.

Regardless, it continued to be cited in federal courts debating bands on same sex marriage. And the gentleman from the Austin Institute, who's actually now its president, recently testified as an expert in a court case

of a medical care for transgender youth.

“He told us that he is not an Opus Day member,”

that his work stems from his own intellectual interests and that the think tanks in the Fihi network are run independently. But for Jack, the way these institutes were talked about within Opus Day made him uncomfortable.

- There were a little alarm bells going off inside my head that this was intellectually dishonest. Academic studies with conclusions already in place, promoting academic institutes that are in pursuit of fixed conclusions.

- These think tanks have successfully brought together prominent conservative voices, the kind of people who meet with government officials, even presidents, and weigh in on network news. They've helped lay the groundwork

for a movement looking to revive traditionalist Christian values in American society. And their importance in this conservative movement is clear from their funders. Much of their income comes from anonymous conservative donor pots,

like the Bradley Impact Fund,

“which funnels millions to pro-magic groups.”

Earlier this year, after an overhaul by President Donald Trump, the National Endowment for the Humanities gave Fihi $10 million, one of the largest grants in the agency's history. But what's barely been reported on

is how this key conservative network was orchestrated in the first place. And it's a story Jack told me that goes back to Opus Day's founder, sent Jose Maria as Scriva.

So Scriva, he was very keen on Opus Day having a very strong influence in academia, because this is how you change the world.

Students had always been at the forefront

of Opus Day's growth. As Scriva's first enter in Spain was a university residence. And in the US, the strategy was the same. They wanted to go to the universities because they wanted to try to bring people

who would be influential in the general culture into closer contact with the Lord. This is a video from Opus Day's YouTube page. In the '50s and the early '60s, a number of wonderful people joined Opus Day,

a large number from Harvard and MIT, and these young people in a sense were a backbone of the development of Opus Day. I think those were grace-filled years when these young people came close to Opus Day

and very quickly joined. A Scriva thought universities were failing young people. It religious hotbeds that nurtured minds but neglected souls. He wanted to change that.

So one way he would express it is an image he would use a lot as he would say that we are like the snow on a mountain top, that melts and when it melts, it trickles down the mountains and waters the valleys below. So we are the intellectual elite.

We are the spiritual elite. We have the truth with a capital T. We have the truth. The only truth that can save. And according to Jack, that was the cool that Opus Day numerous tales was answering.

Spent a lot of time with Luis Tia's and some other people who had been involved with Veehy. I mean, this didn't just happen overnight. This started more than 20 years ago. He talked about how he worked on the Regional Commission

in New York City. And he perceived that there was a lot of pressure or encouragement from the Prelate to start a university in the United States. Those are stories that Luis would tell frequently.

Opus Day already has several universities around the world, like ESC Business School in Spain. But Tia's had another idea for its expansion in the United States.

because there was an awareness of how expensive

“and difficult it would be to start a university in the United States.”

So the idea developed over time. And Luis was the way he tells it. He was on the cutting edge of this idea that we need to have institutes and think tanks at these various universities.

So rather than everything being concentrated in one institution and one location, we can impact institutions all over the country. After dinner at Opus Day get together, Jackson's Tia's health court, recounting stories about Fiji's early days.

He didn't just go rogue and go out on his own and do this. He had discussions with the Prelate of Opus Day himself about these ideas. When you dig into the financial records of these think tanks, you can see how Tia's his plan played out.

There's an American nonprofit called the Clover Foundation which distributes Opus Day's funds across the world. Tia's left his role at the Clover Foundation to launch with a spoon and Clover gave him financial backing. In fact, over the past 25 years,

the only organisations Clover has ever given money to that aren't official Opus Day projects. Other with the Spoon Institute and related initiatives by Tia's and George. So Opus Day isn't only contributing personal to these institutes. It's also contributing funds.

From Jack's perspective, what this shows is that Opus Day is using the think tanks to advance its world view without having to show its hand. They're hiding the man behind the curtain at these institutes. The goal here is to have that broader impact on society,

to change the discussion inside the universities, to change the discussion about what, to change the discussion specifically about the family, about marriage, and about gender. That's what Fee he's trying to do.

The idea of a religious group wanting to influence education or society isn't unusual. So why what Opus Day being so secretive about it? If someone is being very secretive about something,

I think the natural question to ask, first of all,

is why are they being so secretive about it? This is Margaret Doran. If they think that Opus Day is a great influence,

“why is this something that you feel you need to disguise”

when you are interacting with outsiders? 20 years ago, Margaret was a young freshman at Princeton. She described herself as a conservative Catholic and worked at the Widdlespoon Institute in its early years. Back then, Widdlespoon's Primrose Yellow Building

was waiting for a fresh look of paint. Margaret was sometimes checked on the construction work with TAS. She liked and respected the Widdlespoon founder. He'd end up as a guest at her wedding. But TAS made her nervous, too.

I don't know if I ever saw him laugh. He was very serious. He's also tall and cuts it imposing figure. I found him and many others did as well quite intimidating,

though he was never someone to raise his voice.

He was also not someone that you wanted to irritate in any way. We often, someone affectionately referred to him as the godfather, because we saw him as the person who operated behind the scenes, secretly pulling a lot of strings. Margaret never became a member of Opus Day,

but she attended its activities for years. And at the time, as part of this community, she learned how what looks like secrecy to us. Actually looks very different to Opus Day. I never even thought about the fact that every single person who worked there

was both Catholic and involved in Opus Day. When I worked at the Widdlespoon Institute,

“if you would ask me, is the Widdlespoon Catholic organization?”

I would have said no. And if you would ask me, is Widdlespoon Institute affiliated with Opus Day? I also would have said no. And I would have meant it 100%, even though again,

every single person associated with it at that time, was both Catholic and in Opus Day. I would say by and large, most of these people don't see themselves as, oh, I'm here at Widdlespoon carrying out the agenda of Opus Day.

No one thinks that way. I tried to get tears to tell me what he thinks, but he said he didn't want to convey his thoughts, because they are often misunderstood or distorted. Robert George also declined to comment,

and fee he did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Opus Day insists with his spoon and the fee he network are independent, that there are personal initiatives of tears and others.

to advocate for Christ's message in society,

and they view this as no different. That's what I think the issue is here. Opus Day doesn't see or doesn't want to see the problem. Listen to what this Opus Day preset on a podcast recently. He's based in California and is one of the groups

go to personalities for public appearances. San Jose Maria used to say, to do unto disappear, do, and if nobody even knows that you're doing even better,

“that's why sometimes we're accused of being secretive.”

And it's not that we're secretive, is that we don't want to be seen because we want people to see God not us. So if Opus Day is doing, we're doing our work.

You're going to see a lot of people doing wonderful things.

With Opus Day back in the mob, given them all the spiritual resources, all the spiritual direction and everything, and they are the ones who are being seen and we're not. Even being here with you and talking about this, I'm almost breaking the rules that the speak.

For some Opus Day members, the organization does just provide spiritual resources, spiritual direction, and encouragement to do regular prayer. But many other people I've heard from in this podcast described Opus Day dictating where they live,

what they do, and their roles in a coordinated network created to expand its reach in America. So to me, that doesn't really sound like personal work. It sounds like an institutional campaign.

“I think that this spiritual direction Opus Day provides”

is inherently controlling a manipulative. I think the vast majority of people in Opus Day are well-meaning, they're just, they're trying to be good Catholics, and they think this is the way to do it, but again, that makes it so difficult to change course.

Jack believes there's another explanation for why Opus Day keeps its presence in these think tanks hidden. When he was a member, at times, even living with some of the men who founded these institutes, what started to unsettle him was what he saw as a much more strategic motive

for Opus Day's lack of transparency. Because it allows for a broader reach, it allows for Opus Day to cast a wider net to be less threatening to the students and the faculty who they get to be involved in these things. I think to this fee-he initiative, all the people

“who have willingly associated themselves, that's wildly successful,”

because these very smart and intelligent, conservative leaning faculty, in these various institutes all around the country, would be absolutely horrified to see the man behind the curtain. If Opus Day made its presence more explicitly felt and known, it would change the conversation.

And Opus Day knows that. Because Opus Day has received a lot of scrutiny in the past, for the sort of behavior you've heard about on this podcast, allegations that its guidance becomes control, that its intense devotional practices become abusive,

and that its social views are discriminatory. In his years in Side Opus Day, Jack started to feel

that its public face was not always quite the full picture,

but there was always another agenda lurking out of sight. This mode of operating is just quintessential Opus Day. For the last 100 years of Opus Day's existence, this way of operating of sanitizing messages of sanitizing external presentation,

so as to be able to draw people in, you're welcomed, you're loved bombed, you engage in interesting conversations with interesting people, and next thing you know, you've been drawn into something. So we can talk about money,

we can talk about the personnel involved in these institutes, but has someone who was in Opus Day for so long. Nothing bears the stamp of Opus Day more than the sanitized way these institutes are presenting themselves to the world. Eventually, Jack decided it was time to leave Opus Day.

I didn't really put words at the time to the discomfort I felt about what I was hearing, but I felt the cognitive dissonance. I know that, and because you're inside a certain world view and you're inside a certain life, the brain does a lot of work to kind of beat it down,

the words where I'm articulating to myself that this is gross, like that came after. Jack left Opus Day because of the unstated agendas inside the organization.

encountering it as eager young students on their campuses?

You have the directors of the centers, just casually stopping by on campus, the numeraries who are students of the university are constantly engaging with perspective people to come to activities. This is Connor, that's not his real name, and he'd rather not say what university he attended. And from a walkie in hand, seeing this comfortable,

house compared to by sterile dingy dorm, it felt very welcoming and I remember thinking it was beautiful,

“but like family, that's honestly how it felt.”

As Connor spent more time at the Opus Day Center by his campus, he started to see some patterns, social events, dinners and trips, led to further invitations, to talks where high-profile people in Opus Day's network shared their views, and in those talks, discussions of spirituality, blood into ideology.

The talk, which is given by a numerary, is where things start to get more political, and talk more about like culture and needing to influence the culture. And I think that's kind of one of the code phrases and bridges that they use, is this idea that we need to fight against progressive culture, and then that's linked via the culture war in the US to the political sphere.

Connor was attending university, just as anti-work campus politics were exploding. The Opus Day Center presented itself as a place that prepared students to become hardworking young professionals. But it became apparent to Connor that it was also a big part of the heated ideological battle taking place on campus, even if it wasn't explicit about it.

I'll be very clear, Opus Day would never say you can only vote for a Republican,

you can only support conservative policy. Instead, it's always, you know, we need to be fighting against the progressive cultures, these woke ideologies, this DEI gender ideology. Opus Day wasn't the only group driving this reactionary sentiment. It was part of a movement, but Connor realized that in Opus Day's case,

it was looking for a certain discretion in the students that got involved. I remember there was someone who, a really good guy, but he was kind of little too involved with the official religious channels of the university. They want people whose first persona is that they're going to be successful in their career. Then those people secretly have this religious life under it.

So there were definitely people that were very strong targets, they say, "Oh, it would be really great if you guys are friends, your friends with this person, would you invite him to this?" or "Do you think he'd be interested in attending if we had this event?" The friends of his that Opus Day wanted to meet, Connor said, "All had a similar profile."

They're critical, good guys, solid, hardworking, attractive enough, almost without exception, white.

I spoke to many people who had been involved with Opus Day at university and like Connor would tell me, they say Opus Day was creating a pipeline, a club, hardworking students who could be directed towards certain ambitions. Opus Day is more than just a group of people who pray a lot. It heavily revolves around social structure, social order, your professional life, your career,

“your LinkedIn. I mean, I've heard director say, "Oh, you need to talk to this”

in this person, he's a friend of Opus Day, about a job." "Oh, you should reach out to this person, they're a great student, really involved the center, you should reach out to them and see if they would work for you." Opus Day is a worldwide fraternity or sorority depending on which side you're on. For some students, that networking was part of the appeal, but Connor started to question the culture at the centre. The way it turned into a part as unhive mind. In 2020, it became impossible

for Connor to ignore. When he watched the Opus Day members who knew at college, the clearly elections stolen from Trump. "They weren't concerned with truth, they weren't concerned with justice, they weren't concerned with honesty, which ironically were all things that my university claimed to be all about finding. Instead, they were about blindly believing and supporting, whatever brought them to their goals, and they knew that a Trump administration was going to

benefit them and their goals." Connor wasn't prepared to make those sorts of concessions. He ended up splitting from Opus Day. "I want the best for Opus Day, every single person's

“everyday work, can bring them to Holies, I believe that. I support the connections and family”

atmosphere they can bring to a large, confusing college campus and new college students. But it's

freedom, not just saying they have freedom when they really don't." Because in his time at the

“Opus Day centre, Connor felt that he lost his freedom of conscience. The freedom to choose”

how to live out his Christian faith in society. Instead, he felt Opus Day's spiritual network was captured by political ideology. Connor stayed in touch with his peers from the centre. He saw their updates on social media, and he watched as those who've been primed by Opus Day took on roles in the American right wing. "I mean, a lot of the people I knew work at the Harris Foundation, that's a pretty big one. They're the ones that have the most connection with

project 2025 and the Trump administration." Project 2025 is the well-known playbook for the second

Trump administration published by the Heritage Foundation. "There was a very concerted overlap

“between people involved with Opus Day, who came from her had connections to Washington DC,”

and a lot of the people that were most devolved to the activities where the people who had the highest political ambitions. The ones that were most involved with the conservative, right wing were just think tanks." Opus Day wouldn't answer questions on the record for this podcast. It's previously said it doesn't have a political agenda. But by now, I knew there were lots of

things that Opus Day said that in reality were much more complicated, that it stated intentions

often led to quite different outcomes. So if this was what we'd seen in academia, what did Opus Day look like in Washington? "If you view the conservative push as a military, Opus Day's providing support to the foot soldiers who are making these changes and going out there and pushing some of these policy changes." That's next time. "You were the closest tabernacle to the White House." "They're fashioning the narrative for the wider culture now,

and yet you want to pretend that you represent all of Catholicism in the United States." "They all work together in these universities, think tanks, government positions, and they're all part of this extremely insular and controlling religious group. "You don't actually know in these organizations who is in charge, who is really pulling the strings."

“If you want to share a tip in relation to this podcast,”

please get in touch @[email protected]. The reporting for the series was by me Antonia Cundee and Pasta Slav. Written by me Josh Gabbett Doyon and Pasta Slav. It was produced by Josh Gabbett Doyon and Pasta Slav. Original music was by Rene Turner, mixing and editing by Rene Turner and Sam Giovincco, script editing by Matt Valla, and the fact checking was by Simon Greaths.

Our executive producer is Tofa Foreheads and the FT's head of audio is Cheryl Bromley. Special thanks to Nigel Hansen, Madison marriage, Karim Shipper, Helen Warrell, Miles Johnson, Marine St. Joe Miller, Katie Bevan and Paul Murphy. Thank you to the many sources who share their stories with us for this series, and thanks for listening.

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