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Trump, for his part, has sought to distance himself from Project 2025,
though the people behind it have close ties to the former president,
and the policies it envisions often align with Trump’s ideas.

Roberts has said he is “good friends” with JD #Vance, Trump’s running mate,
and Vance has praised Project 2025 as having “some good ideas”.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, also wrote the foreword for Roberts’ forthcoming book,
praising the author for articulating a “genuinely new future for conservatism”.

“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon,” Vance wrote.

Opus Dei does not disclose the names of its members.

The group’s roots date back to a century ago, when the group was established in Spain
in response to a clash between conservative Catholics and anti-Catholic socialism and communism in Spain.

Decades later, the group was granted special status by the conservative pope John Paul II,
who supported Opus Dei and saw it as a response to the rise of liberation theology in Latin America,
a progressive church movement.

Some of Opus Dei’s special rights were revoked in recent years by Pope Francis,
who is seen as a more progressive pontiff.

One of the core tenets of Opus Dei is that it does not believe in the traditional separation of church and state.

Instead, said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University,
it believes the two ought to have a symbiotic relationship.

“They are secretive, so while they are not [outwardly] part of this [Project 2025] per se,
it is not surprising at all that some of their members are part of it.
They see this moment in politics
– and the possibility of allowing ‘woke ideology’ to win
– as fundamentally changing the nature of America, western civilization and Christianity,” Faggioli said.

He added: “Opus Dei is part of [a movement of] US conservative and traditionalist Catholicism
that holds a view that the United States is the last bastion of Christendom,
so that if the United States goes a certain way, so goes Christianity,
and Catholicism.”

Indeed Roberts made it clear earlier this month that he believes the US is at a crossroads,
and 🔸“in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be”.🔸

Asked whether it had a view on Roberts’ remarks or Project 2025,
a spokesperson for Opus Dei told the Guardian in a statement:
“Opus Dei is an institution of the Catholic Church that tries to help people come closer to God in their work and everyday lives.
Opus Dei’s aims are purely spiritual and it does not endorse or have any opinion on any political project of any kind.”

Opus Dei is controversial not only in the US.

Dozens of women from Argentina and Paraguay filed a complaint to the Vatican over labor exploitation and abuses of power
they say they experienced after joining the group at sites in multiple countries.

And reporting in Australia gave insight into schools run by Opus Dei,
where former students allege their education left them with “psychological damage”.

Roberts’ personal background suggests his ties to Opus Dei are not just limited to the CIC.

A school founded by Roberts in Louisiana,
called John Paul the Great Academy,
considers Opus Dei-founder Escrivá its “patron”.

#Heritage #Foundation #Project2025 #Roberts #CIC #Gore #Escrivá #Roberts #Leo #Trump