Book Review: Gore's “Opus” Is a Spectacular Work of Narrative Journalism

If you woke up this morning thinking that you couldn’t hold the Catholic Church in lower regard, I’ve got a book for you. “Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church” by Gareth Gore is an extraordinary work that will make you wish for an international cabal as tame as the one fictionalized by Dan Brown in “The DaVinci Code.”

I’d want to tell you a tale of two Catholics. At a family party last summer, my aunt, who is so kind I sometimes forget she’s Catholic, got up to get a drink. My brother’s father-in-law, who wears his Catholicism like a suit of spiky armor, took her seat. When she returned and asked for her seat back, he said, “Women’s lib” and stayed put. You see, he doesn’t want to hate independent women, but he knows his god wants him to hate independent women.

As someone who doesn’t take orders from any god, I was happy to vacate my seat to find better company elsewhere. There’s no talking to people who hate on their god’s behalf because they’ve laid off their moral agency like a skillful bookie.

The central problem of religion broadly and Catholicism specifically, is the one true Scotsman fallacy. Everyone gets to have their own opinion about what a “real” Christian does and believes. This is old, tedious ground I won’t retread except to mention it for context.

Too often and to the great detriment of our culture, we think of religion as mostly benign, except for a couple of bad actors. But as the religious right continues to insert itself into politics, following the Opus Dei apologetics that it is a moral imperative to use democracy to affect theocratic rule, it’s time to wonder whether Christianity, isn’t essentially traitorous, treasonous, and anti-American. I want to paraphrase Mary Midgley here when I say that the existence of a hairless baboon doesn’t invalidate the statement, “Baboons are hairy.” Generalizations can be effective descriptors.

Lerone A. Martin touched upon the case for Christianity as an anti-democratic ideology in “The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism” which revealed the iconic FBI director’s crusade to infuse every branch of government with Christianity’s racist, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist philosophy.

Gore enters and expands upon this conversation with his work of adept, engaging reportage.

The story of Robert Hanssen, Opus Dei member, FBI agent, and the “most damaging spy in Bureau history,” is an easy and (relatively) well-known example. In 1979, Hanssen’s wife discovered he was a Russian agent. Both devout Catholics and Opus Dei “supernumeraries,” they went to their spiritual advisor for direction.

A fundamental precept of Opus Dei is that confessors share what they learn with the cult’s higher-ups and record every conversation for potential blackmail. After telling Hanssen to turn himself in and (presumably) informing his superiors in Rome, the priest called the next day with a different punishment. Hanssen’s penance for betraying his country was that he had to donate any money he made from spying to Opus Dei.

The history of this Catholic cult echoes with a certain mafioso ideology: earning matters more than rules, practice, and honor. Sex pests and pedophiles who earn for the church get protection. The others are expendable. One wonders whether Hanssen’s decision to trade money for information was specifically to make his “nut” for his Opus Dei superiors. One further wonders if the FB I cared very much about the White Christian Nationalist aspect of his betrayal.

“Opus” details the decades-old plan establishing the judicial pipeline that eventually put Roberts, Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Barrett on the Supreme Court (Bork was a near-miss) with the express purpose of “Christianizing” the law of the land, as well as finding more and richer donors to fund their theocratic cause.

Opus Dei had effectively infiltrated the Vatican to run its global conspiracy with the help and blessing of John Paul II.

And that’s just a slice.

I could enumerate the horrors—tricking thousands of poor women and girls into a lifetime of servitude and slavery in the extensive Opus Dei network of homes, colleges, and meeting facilities—but I wouldn’t do the story justice. What makes “Opus” worth reading is that Gore presents it with the color and flair of a well-done spy novel, more like Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” than Brown’s pop classic.

I’ve not read any other reviews, but it wouldn’t shock me to see “The Big Short” referenced in some. The financial woes at Spain’s Banco Popular are a through-line, emphasizing how critical finance was. Expensive retreats for wealthy donors and politicos require fortunes (and slave labor) for upkeep.

Although he only rarely slips into first person, this is the story of a reporter covering a massive bank collapse (I’ll give you three guesses why Banco Popular tanked) who stumbled upon a worldwide financial and political conspiracy. He lays the pieces together at a pace rapid enough to keep the reader hooked but with the pointed resolve of a prosecutor.

As odd as it might be to hear, the real coup is in his decision to not interrupt the story’s flow with “proof.” There are endnotes (instead of footnotes) for the skeptical and the interested. I read “Opus” on Kindle, and as I swiped the last page, the screen indicator said I’d only completed 60% of the book.

“Opus” is 60% narrative and 40% notes, which is why a work of this depth and detail reads so well. Gore provides proof for those who want to check it, but he never stops the flow with extensive verifications and exposition. As with any great international thriller, he gives enough exposition to avoid plot holes, but not so much that you find yourself zoning out.

I don’t know if “Opus” is a clarion call, but at the very least, the work puts people who still are willing to see religion as a putative force for good on notice. Very little stands between the theocrats and the kind of social and economic hegemony that could forever change what it means to be a law-abiding citizen. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Post Script

This was a pretty hard book to read. I’m struggling with how people get to the point where they really feel like viciousness serves their god. As I read this book I made notes in my chat. I’ll do that with the rest of the books I review. If you care to look at them, one of the things the author hints at is that Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society might be trying to buy his daughter sainthood. How deranged is that?

I’ll be honest, I’m glad the man responsible for stacking the Supreme Court thusly has been driven mad by grief. It won’t undo the damage he’s done, though. None of the rapes, violence, degredation, or promising lives altered can be repaired no matter what happens to this cult, or to the religious fervor that powers it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about original sin, whether it’s the knowledge that we trade convenience (including self-deception) for our eventual downfall and a lessening of our brief experience here. I think it’s something like that.

I’ll be reviewing a book about a serial killer next, which should be less bleak. How comical is that?

If you missed the “Object History” series, I’ve finished my revision and hope to crank out the next installment directly. I’ll also turn it into a podcast complete with (fake) vintage commercials.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving.