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Chapter One

In Search of Opus

It is only some 200 kilometers from Cuzco, Peru's second cityand former capital of the Incas, to the town of Abancay, yet so badwas the road that my journey in a Toyota land cruiser took all often hours. Abancay itself is a frontier town, deep in the Andes.Soldiers guard the entrances. Its inhabitants prefer to drive jeeptypevehicles or pick-up trucks, if they can afford any vehicle atall. Only a handful of the streets are metaled roads; most are littlemore than dirt tracks.

The building I had come to visit was just off one of thesetracks. The wall around it was broken by an imposing gateway.Inside the wall there were a swimming pool and elegant flowerbeds. Two fountains were playing, one into a basin containinggoldfish. I visited one of the two chapels standing in the garden.Behind the altar, set in an elaborate gold frame, there was a pictureof the Holy Family: Mary and Joseph teaching Jesus to walk.It was painted in the Cuzceña style derived from the art theSpanish conquistadores had brought to Peru in the sixteenth century.The contrast between the world I had entered when I passedunder the gateway arch, and the world along the dirt track outsidecould hardly have been greater.This was like the hacienda ofsome wealthy landowner. It was, in fact, a seminary, a place fortraining Roman Catholic clergy.

I was visiting it at the suggestion of Ken Duncan, an aid anddevelopment consultant who had heard that I was interested inthe Catholic organization Opus Dei. Duncan, not himself aCatholic, had been taken aback by the activities of Opus in Peruand wanted to tell his experiences to someone who might drawattention to what he saw as unacceptable behavior on the part ofthe Opus clergy.

Despite its isolation I was able to make my way to Abancayand call at the seminary, the luxury of which, when comparedwith the bitter poverty of the people outside its walls, Duncanhad found scandalous. The seminary, run by a handful of OpusDei clergy from Spain in well-cut soutanes -- the long black gownwhich was once the everyday wear of Catholic priests inEurope -- was just as Duncan had described it. Like him, I wasstartled by the contrast between the poverty and squalor outsidethe walls and the comfort within, and by the incongruity of findingsuch an institution in the depths of the Andes.

Ken Duncan had often worked with Catholic organizations.He had high praise for many of them. He was, however,alarmed at the growing influence of Opus in Peru. He waseven more alarmed when I told him of the size and complexity...

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Excerpted from Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Powerful, Secretive Society Within the Catholic Church by Michael Walsh
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.