Dear Sir,

With reference to the article (11 January) by Sarah McDonald about former Opus Dei members, I wish to clarify that it is over 40 years since the two women quoted left Opus Dei and neither of them lived or worked in a centre of Opus Dei for more than 2 or 3 years.

As far as we can ascertain, Ms Maguire never worked in any centre other than for the purposes of supervised on-the-job training as part of her training course. There is evidence of Ms Allen being employed for a short period of time and social welfare payments being made on her behalf. With the passage of 40 years, the records, regrettably but not surprisingly, are incomplete.

To date the Prelate of Opus Dei has not received the letter mentioned in the article.

We regret that anyone’s experience of Opus Dei, no matter how brief or how long ago, would be in any way hurtful or unhelpful. We take all allegations of wrongdoing seriously and do our best to investigate the surrounding circumstances so that, if appropriate, we can apologise and take steps to avoid a recurrence.

Yours,

Paul Harman

Opus Dei Information Office

10 Hume Street

Dublin D02 VY39

E: info.ie@opusdei.org

M: +353 87 672 0995