The Financial Times will launch the fourth season of its award-winning investigative podcast Untold on 25 March.
In Untold: Opus Dei, FT special investigations reporter Antonia Cundy examines the controversial Catholic organisation and its influence in the United States – from small towns to Ivy League universities and Washington’s corridors of power.
Drawing on interviews with dozens of current and former members, the four-episode series tells personal stories from inside Opus Dei. It uncovers how the group’s culture, practices and worldview have made it a significant force within an ascendant conservative movement in the US.
Untold: Opus Dei also raises broader questions about where the boundaries lie between spiritual guidance and personal autonomy, discretion and secrecy, and when religious belief turns into political ideology.
Founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá, Opus Dei promotes the idea that people can find holiness through their everyday lives and that ordinary professional work can be a path to salvation. Today Opus Dei has close to 100,000 members worldwide, with around 3,000 in the US, and is known for its theological orthodoxy and structured spiritual discipline.
“When I started reporting this story, I was looking at life inside Opus Dei and the experiences of its members. But over the next two years, Opus Dei kept appearing alongside powerful institutions and figures in the US,” Cundy said. “At first, I was sceptical – the idea of a religious group wielding secret political power felt like a conspiracy cliché. But as I dug deeper, what I found, about how and why Opus Dei is shaping American society, proved far more interesting.”
Episodes of Untold: Opus Dei will be released weekly on Wednesdays from 25 March. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts. The trailer is available here.
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For more information, please contact pressoffice@ft.com
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