Monsignor Mariano Fazio is auxiliary vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei. / Credit: Opus Dei

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 6, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Argentine justice system has added the auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei, the organization’s second in command, Monsignor Mariano Fazio, as a defendant in the case involving the alleged human trafficking and the reduction to servitude of 43 women in Argentina.

The case, which was formally filed in 2024 but had been reported in the media several years earlier, accuses Opus Dei authorities of allegedly recruiting 43 women while they were still minors and subjecting them to a regime of semi-slavery in their residences.

Until now, the defendants were four priests who served as authorities at different times 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 case now includes another defendant: Fazio, currently auxiliary vicar of the Prelature of the Holy Cross, the second-highest authority in Opus Dei worldwide. 

The Argentine Prosecutor’s Office Against Human Trafficking and the National Prosecutor’s Office in Criminal and Federal Correctional Affairs No. 3 are requesting that he appear to testify.

The accusation

Although the complaint states that at least 43 women were recruited by Opus Dei as minors, deceived with promises of an education and a home, and then forced to work for free as domestic workers for years, the document only focuses on the case of one of them.

The prosecutor’s office maintains that Opus Dei presented “a false proposal” and that the only education these women received was to perform domestic tasks “without pay” and in violation of their rights.

The accusation also refers to a system of “indoctrination and psychological manipulation” with “rules of life,” including the obligation to chastity, the severance of family and social ties, periodic health checkups, and the provision of psychiatric medication, which they had to comply with under threat of punishment.

The case is based on the testimony of a Bolivian woman who worked for Opus Dei for 30 years. In April, the woman expanded her statement, claiming to have directly served Fazio, among other priests.

Response by Opus Dei 

Upon the announcement of this new charge, reported by the Spanish newspaper Eldiario, the Opus Dei communications office in Argentina issued a statement clarifying that the judicial investigation concerns “the personal situation of a woman” during her time in Opus Dei and “categorically” denies the accusation of human trafficking and labor exploitation.

Opus Dei expressed surprise at seeing that “the claim [that] initially began in the media as a complaint about inconsistencies in pension and employment contributions” has subsequently “morphed into a civil claim for financial harm and damages” as well as most recently an “accusation from a person claiming to have been a victim of ‘human trafficking.’”

The complaint, Opus Dei maintains, stems from “a complete decontextualization” of the freely chosen vocation of the assistant numeraries.

The statement goes on to defend the right of the people mentioned in the complaint to defend themselves and “be allowed to present their version of events for the first time, in order to definitively clarify this situation.”

Those leveling the accusation, Opus Dei emphasized, “have systematically attempted to instill in the media a narrative of automatic guilt” that violates the presumption of innocence.

The organization maintains that the woman making the complaint “is referring to a stage in her life when she freely chose to embark on her spiritual journey in the Catholic Church” as an assistant numerary.

A life choice

The assistant numeraries, the statement explains, “are women of Opus Dei who, like all other members, aspire to love God and others and demonstrate this through their work and their daily lives,” work that in this case consists of caring for people who live in the centers.

The statement indicates that joining the apostolate is a life choice that involves an explicit, repeated, and often written desire, while “there is no barrier” to leaving.

The statement also maintains that the “living situation and mistreatment” raised in the complaint is false, since in addition to receiving pay and having private health insurance, the homes where the numerary assistants reside provide “a welcoming environment with facilities for rest, recreation, reading, and study.”

The prelature once again affirmed its “commitment to fully cooperate with the justice system to determine the facts and resolve the situation in a fair and transparent manner.”

Who is Monsignor Mariano Fazio?

Fazio was born in Buenos Aires on April 25, 1960. He holds a degree in history from the University of Buenos Aires and a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

Ordained a priest in 1991 by Pope John Paul II, he served as the first dean of the institutional communications department at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome from 1996 to 2002, and from 2002 to 2008 served as rector of that university.

During the same period, he was elected president of the Conference of Rectors of the Pontifical Roman Catholic Universities.

Fazio was an expert at the fifth general conference of the episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean (Aparecida, Brazil), where he met then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

He served as vicar of Opus Dei in Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. In December 2014, he was appointed vicar general of Opus Dei by the then-prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría, a position he held until January 2017 when the Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz as prelate of Opus Dei.

He has served as auxiliary vicar since May 14, 2019.

In May, Ocáriz and Fazio met with Pope Leo XIV to share the current situation of the apostolate after Pope Francis requested that the statutes be modified.

Regarding the meeting, the prelate of Opus Dei stated that “it was a fatherly gesture, during which the pope expressed his closeness and affection.” 

Regarding the process of modifying the statutes, he reflected: “The changes we are experiencing — including in the process of adjusting the statutes — are an impetus to safeguard what is essential.” He added that Opus Dei “is called to change in fidelity to its charism.”

After a three-year journey, on June 11, Opus Dei presented the proposal for its new statutes to the Holy See.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.