List of members of Opus Dei


This is a list of prominent Opus Dei members. It is intended to include people whose membership in Opus Dei is documented in published sources, and therefore a matter of public record.
The names of Opus Dei directors and priests are available in official Catholic journals and Opus Dei's official bulletin, Romana.
Opus Dei maintains lists of cooperators, who are not considered by Opus Dei to be members, and who do not even have to be Roman Catholics, but who agree to assist with the work of Opus Dei in any of various ways. Such cooperators are not included in this list.
This article should by no means be considered an exhaustive list of past and present members and sympathisers of Opus Dei involved in political, religious, cultural, academic or literary life.
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Opus Dei policy on publicizing membership

Opus Dei treats membership status of its lay members in a confidential manner, having a stated policy of neither confirming nor denying the membership of Opus Dei until the member in question has publicly acknowledged his or her membership.
Opus Dei supporter William O'Connor wrote that a person's spiritual life is a private matter, and that the practice of not divulging membership lists is common to many organizations such as trade unions, hospitals, schools and clubs. He stated that it is part of the secular nature of vocation to Opus Dei that its members do not represent the religious organization which provide them with spiritual instruction, in the same way that professionals do not externally represent their alma maters. According to several journalists who wrote independently on Opus Dei accusations of secrecy come from a clericalist mentality which equates Opus Dei members with monks and priests, the traditional symbols of holiness who are externally identifiable as such.
Detractors argue that, given Opus Dei's strong defence of traditional Catholic positions in social and moral matters, especially in regard to anti-abortion and marriage, membership of the organisation is indeed relevant to exercising functions in the public domain. In addition, Opus Dei states that it is a non-political organisation and does not direct or try to influence its members in any way in the fulfillment of their professional duties, whether in the public or private sphere, except where such activities impinge on their duties as Catholics.
For the most part, Opus Dei members belong to the low and middle class in terms of income, social status and education. Among its members are barbers, bricklayers, mechanics, and fruit sellers. Most supernumeraries are living ordinary middle-class lives.

Government and Civil Service

Writing and journalism

  • Joaquín Navarro-Valls, physician and journalist who later served as the Director of the Vatican Press Office, taking the post in 1984. A numerary member.
  • Robert Duncan, journalist. An ombudsman for foreign press in Spain; vice-president of OPCI Ibero-American press association; vice-president of APSCE, association for energy and telecommunications; past executive board member for Spain's oldest and largest foreign press body, the Club Internaciónal de Prensa; editor for Spero News and EnerPub.
  • Rafael Calvo Serer, editor and founder of Diario Madrid who was hounded into exile for his criticism of Franco, who closed the publication. Although Messori states that Calvo, by working underground, helped to bring democracy to Spain, According to some, he did not oppose Francoism, but Franco himself about Franco's succession.
  • Antonio Fontán, journalist who advocated free elections and trade unions in Spain under Franco. Later served as President of the Senate and helped draft Spain's new democratic constitution.
  • Francisco Fernández Carvajal, wrote In Conversation with God, which has sold over two million copies in several languages, including Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Romanian, Slovakian and Polish. It consists of over 450 meditations, one or more for every day of the year, as well as three meditations for each Sunday, corresponding to the three-year cycle in the Catholic lectionary.
  • Pilar Urbano, Spanish journalist whose interviewing technique has become a model for other journalists. Numerary.
  • Cesare Cavalleri, Italian literary critic and publisher. He received the Premio internazionale Medaglia d'oro per la Cultura cattolica.
  • Alberto Michelini, Italian film director, journalist and politician. A supernumerary member.
  • Michael Adams, Irish publisher, was a numerary member and the Managing Director of Four Courts Press, Ireland's largest academic publishing house. Adams was the author of a book Censorship: The Irish Experience, which was critical of the operation of the former Irish system of literary censorship.
  • Paul Dumol, Filipino playwright, famous for Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio. He is also the Chairman of the Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy.
  • Alexandre Havard, writer.

Academia

Social work and medicine

  • Toni Zweifel, Swiss engineer who patented several inventions. He founded and served as director of the Limmat Foundation, a foundation that supports social projects all over the world with a majority of women as project beneficiaries. His process of beatification has been opened. A numerary.
  • Margaret Ogola, medical director of the Cottolengo Hospice in Nairobi for HIV-positive orphans and Kenyan author. A supernumerary with four children, she heads the Commission for Health and Family Life for the Kenyan bishops' conference. Her novel The River and the Source, which follows four generations of Kenyan women in a rapidly changing country and society, won the Africa Region Commonwealth Award for Literature. Interested in women's empowerment, she is also Vice-President of Family Life Counselling.
  • John Henry, "one of the world's leading authorities on drugs and poisons" and "Britain's best known toxicologist made frequent appearances on television and radio."
  • Umberto Farri, founder and President of Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria or ICU. It is a non-governmental organization which has completed over 200 development co-operation projects in 32 countries.
  • Felipe González de Canales, co-founder of a system of agriculture schools and rural development centers called Escuelas Familiares Agrarias which has 30 schools in Spain and has influenced 68 other agricultural schools in other parts of the world. He is also the founder of two trade unions. He is an associate member of Opus Dei.

Business

Sports, fashion, and entertainment

Clergy

For other members of the clergy, please see Opus Dei: Priestly Society of the Holy Cross.