The Argentine Prosecutor’s Office requested to call to declare the auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei, Mons. Mariano Fazio, in the case for alleged crimes of human trafficking and reduction to servitude.
From Opus Dei, on the other hand, they “categorically” deny the accusation and ask that the people mentioned in the complaint “can exercise their right to defense” to “definitively clarify the situation.” They also point out that those who drive the accusation try to install “an automatic guilt narrative.”
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
The cause, which was formally presented to Justice in 2024 but had been denounced in the media some years ago, denounces the Opus Dei authorities for allegedly having captured women when they were still minors, and having submitted them to a semi slavery regime in their residences.
Until now, there were four priests who served as authorities in different periods between 1991 and 2015: Carlos Nannei, Patricio Olmos and Víctor Urrestarazu, former vicars of Opus Dei in Argentina, and the former director of the women’s branch in the country, Gabriel Dondo.
The cause now adds to Mons. Mariano Fazio, today auxiliary vicar of the Prelature of the Santa Cruz, the second authority at the global level of Opus Dei, to whom the Attorney General’s Office against Trafficking in Persons of Argentina and the National Prosecutor’s Office in Criminal and Correctional Federal 3 requests that it be presented to declare.
The accusation
Although according to the media that had access to the complaint, the text indicates that at least 43 women were recruited by Opus Dei when they were minors, deceived with education promises and a home, and then forced to work for free as domestic employees for years; The document only focuses on one of them.
The Prosecutor’s Office argues that from Opus Dei presented “a false proposal” and that the only education that these women received was to develop domestic tasks “without receiving a salary” and violating their rights.
The accusation also refers to a system of “indoctrination and psychological manipulation”, with “norms of life”, including the obligation of chastity, rupture of family and social ties, periodic health reviews and supply of psychiatric medication, which had to comply under threat of punishment.
The cause is based on the testimony of a Bolivian woman who for 30 years worked at Opus Dei. In April 2025, the woman expanded her statement, claiming to have served directly to Mons. Fazio, among other priests.
Opus Dei asks that the denounced can defend themselves
Upon making this new imputation known, disseminated by Eldiario.esthe Opus Dei Communication Office in Argentina issued a communication in which he clarifies that the judicial investigation is about “the personal situation of a woman” during his time for the Opus Dei, and “categorically” denies the accusation of trafficking in person and labor exploitation.
From the Opus Dei they see with surprise that “initially the approach began in the media as a claim for inconsistencies in pension and labor contributions”, and then “muttered a civil economic claim of damages.” Finally, they point out, “it was transformed, in August 2024, an accusation of a person who claims to have been the victim of ‘person’s trafficking’.”
The complaint, they point out, part of “a complete decontextualization” of the vocation that freely choose the numeraries.
Therefore, they consider “necessary and important” that the people mentioned in the complaint “may exercise their right to defense, and are allowed to present their version of the facts for the first time, to definitively clarify this situation.”
Those who drive the accusation underline from Opus Dei, “have tried to systematically install in the media a narrative of automatic guilt” that threatens the presumption of innocence.
They also clarify that the woman who makes the complaint “refers to a stage of her life when she freely wanted to undertake her spiritual path in the Catholic Church” as an auxiliary number.
A life option
The numeraries, explains the statement, “are women of Opus Dei who, like all other members, aspire to love God and others and demonstrate it through their work and their daily lives”, a work that in this case consists in the care of people living in the centers.
The statement also clarifies that the incorporation into the work is a life option that implies explicit, repeated and many times in writing, while for the decoupling “there is no barrier.”
They also argue that the “precarious and destratory life situation” raised in the complaint is false, since in addition to receiving remuneration and having a private social work, in the houses where the numerarias are the assistants there is “a cozy atmosphere and with facilities for rest, recreation, reading and study.”
“Prelature has always respected the voice of those who raised claims, and since the beginning of this conflict, its main interest has been to listen and establish a dialogue channel that allows us to understand the experience,” they say.
Therefore, they consider that “research is necessary to definitively clarify the situation”, while reaffirming “the commitment to fully collaborate with justice to clarify the facts and resolve the situation fairly and transparently.”
Who is Mons. Mariano Fazio?
Mariano Fazio was born in Buenos Aires on April 25, 1960. He has a degree in History from the University of Buenos Aires and a doctor in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Santa Cruz.
Ordered priest in 1991 by San Juan Pablo II, from 1996 to 2002 he was the first dean of the Faculty of Institutional Communication of the Pontifical University of the Santa Cruz (Rome) and, from 2002 to 2008, rector of that university.
During the same period he was elected president of the Conference of Rectors of the Roman Pontifical Universities.
He was an expert at the V General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean (appearance, Brazil), where he met Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
He was Vicar of Opus Dei in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. In December 2014 he was appointed Vicar General of Opus Dei for the then Prelate, Mons. Javier Echevarría, a position he continued to occupy until January 2017, when the Holy Father appointed prelate of Opus Dei to Mons. Fernando Ocáriz.
Since May 14, 2019, he is auxiliary vicar.
Last May, Mons. Ocáriz and Mons. Fazio met with Pope Leo XIV to share the current situation of the work, after Pope Francis requested to modify the statutes.
On the meeting, the prelate of Opus Dei said that “it was a gesture of paternity, during which the Pope expressed his closeness and affection.” And regarding the process of modification of the statutes, he reflected: “The changes we are living – also in the process of adjusting the statutes – are an impulse to guard the essential” and said that “the work is called to change in fidelity to its charisma.”
After a three -year way, on June 11, 2025, Opus Dei presented the proposal of its new statutes before the Holy See.
Editor’s note: The original holder of this article was modified to specify the legal situation of the process.
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.