This record documents two distinct clusters of controversy involving Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, each carrying the prelature's own response.
The first is a recurring criticism of internal culture: former members, journalists and some Catholic critics have documented allegations of high-control recruitment methods, restricted communication for live-in numerary members, and a culture of secrecy inside some residences and formation programs. Opus Dei disputes the characterization and describes its practices as ordinary religious formation.
The second concerns the labor conditions of assistant numeraries, women who perform domestic work in Opus Dei residences. France's Amiens court of appeal ruled in 2016 that an Opus Dei controlled hospitality school and two of its Opus Dei managers had underpaid and failed to declare the employment of 99 students and workers, including minors, and ordered damages paid to former assistant numerary Catherine Tissier for injury tied to years of unpaid overwork. In Argentina, prosecutors opened a criminal investigation alleging Opus Dei leaders recruited at least 43 women, many while minors, into conditions the complaint calls servitude between the early 1970s and 2015; in July 2025 the prelature's auxiliary vicar, Monsignor Mariano Fazio, was named a defendant alongside four priests. The Argentina case remains at the investigation stage; no conviction has resulted. Opus Dei categorically denies both matters, calls the Argentina case media manipulation using a charge disconnected from what the complainants themselves describe, and says assistant numeraries join freely, are remunerated, and receive medical coverage and training.