Some know it as the diabolical secret organization of monk-assassins depicted in the The Da Vinci Code. Others recall it in vague connection with Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who spied for Russia.

Those inside the beltway may be familiar with the role it played in the conversion to Catholicism of Sen. Sam Brownback, Robert Bork, and syndicated columnist Robert Novak—though apparently none of them numbers himself among the roughly 3,000 members the group claims to have in the United States. (Nor, despite rumors, do Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former FBI director Louis Freeh, or Sen. Rick Santorum.)

Opus Dei has unquestionably gotten a lot of bad press, originally because of the prominence of some members in Franco´s cabinet toward the end of his regime.

More

[link to www.washingtonmonthly.com]