Kevin Roberts and the Opus Dei connection

The president of the Heritage Foundation is a regular at the Opus Dei hub in DC

In September 2023, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and the architect of Project 2025, gave a speech at the Catholic Information Center, the Opus Dei chapel and bookshop on K Street in downtown Washington, D.C.

Ahead of the event, a decision had been taken to cover up the bronze statue of the Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá, presumably to avoid any embarrassing photos of Roberts with this highly controversial figure in the background.

But, as he delivered his speech, Roberts left nobody in that room in any doubt about the influence that Escrivá had had on his way of thinking.

He quoted the Opus Dei founder directly as he lectured the audience about the need for what he called “radical incrementalism” – of a gradual revolution to reshape society according to his ultra-conservative Catholic agenda.

“Saint Josemaría tells us … Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Make yourself felt … Set aflame all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ,” he told the audience.

I think we can all agree that, as the figurehead of Project 2025, Roberts certainly has – in the words of the Opus Dei founder – made himself “felt”. Project 2025 was drawn up as a blueprint for a second Trump term that would “set aflame all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ” – especially when it comes to issues such as education, reproductive rights and same-sex marriage.

You’re probably familiar with the interview that Roberts gave to Steve Bannon last year, in which he talked about the “second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless – if the left allows it to be”. You’ll will also have seen the furore around his defence of platforming the far-right figure Nick Fuentes, which has led to “open rebellion” among employees at the Heritage Foundation.

What few of you will have perhaps realised is just how much Roberts’ language - and his normalisation of far-right ideologies - echoes that of the Opus Dei founder.

Now, Opus Dei would have you believe that Escrivá started the movement because he wanted to inspire everyday Catholics to live saintly existences.

But, that isn’t the whole story. Just like Project 2025, Opus Dei started out – and remains today – as very much a political project. Escrivá developed Opus Dei as reactionary stand against the progressive forces that were transforming the lives of the poor and downtrodden in Spain during the 1930s – just as Roberts is doing with Project 2025 today.

Like Roberts, who has described the people behind Project 2025 as “soldiers” willing to march on the capital, Escrivá instilled in his followers the idea that that they were part of what he called “a rising militia” of “apostles carrying out the orders of Christ.”

Roberts is very much part of this Opus Dei “militia”. He is a frequent visitor to the Catholic Information Center – he visits at least once a week – and takes spiritual direction from the Opus Dei priests there. For years, he has been weaned on this philosophy of radical Catholic militancy.

Well, so what, you might say – isn’t Opus Dei just another, albeit slightly more militant, part of the Catholic Church. I can tell you that, no, it absolutely isn’t. I’ve spent the last five years researching Opus Dei for a book, which was published by Simon & Schuster last year.

By far the most shocking revelation for me has been just how ruthless Opus Dei is willing to be in pursuing its warped agenda - even when its actions clearly run contrary to the virtues of charity and kindness that are supposed to underpin the Christian faith.

The organisation has formally accused by federal prosecutors in Argentina of trafficking young girls. There have been countless allegations of psychological, emotional, spiritual and even physical abuse from people who have left the group – stories of members being cut off from their family, told to leave their jobs and move to another country, and even widespread medication of members to hide mental illness. Members have been tasked with grooming children to become members – and of targeting the rich and powerful to further the group’s influence.

Opus Dei will stop at nothing in its mission to “defeat the enemies of Christ”, as its founder put it.

The movement also has ties to fascism. Opus Dei flourished under the Franco dictatorship. It considered Franco an ally. I would argue that Roberts sees Trump through that exact same prism – for him, Trump is just an authoritarian vehicle through which Roberts hopes to reshape society according to his distorted radical Catholic beliefs.

The links between Opus Dei and Project 2025 don’t end with Roberts. Leonard Leo, who has funded more than half the groups behind Project 2025, is a member of the CIC board. The Opus Dei priest there is a regular visitor at the Leo family mansion in Maine. The CIC even has a shrine to Leo’s daughter, who died in 2007.

Opus Dei didn’t get to this position of influence by accident. For years – and I write about this in the book – it has coveted this kind of sway in Washington. It has ploughed money into expanding its presence there – especially among the political elite – and successfully transformed the wider D.C. area into the largest Opus Dei community in the United States—made up of eight hundred members and countless sympathizers.

Today, Opus Dei has completely penetrated the city’s conservative Catholic ranks. I would even go so far as to argue that the Opus Dei philosophy is now the dominant force among the Catholic wing of the Christian nationalists that we’re talking about today.

Both Roberts and Leo know there is no public appetite for a society based on the distorted Opus Dei brand of Catholicism that they adhere to. Roberts even admitted as much in his speech to the Opus Dei centre last year. “There simply isn’t the public support – lamentably – right now.”

But both men have been weaned on this “anything goes” philosophy in their mission to “re-Christianise” society and take on what the founder described as “the enemies of Christ”.

What Project 2025 gives them is a shot as reconfiguring society according to their vision – without the need for any democratic mandate. They plan to purge government of thousands of experienced experts and officials and replace them with likeminded radicals willing to push through their agenda.

During the first Trump administration, several Opus Dei members and sympathisers – including Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Attorney General Bill Barr – were given big jobs. Project 2025 promises to turbocharge the influence of Opus Dei, and catapult many of its followers right into the heart of government.

If you want to learn more about Opus Dei, the paperback edition of my book Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church is now on sale. It has a new afterword bringing the story right up to date.