"That's more than my job's worth, mate" - this is how Opus Dei gets through the cracks

Trying to get accountability for Opus Dei from the bishops, safeguarding teams and others has been an utterly infuriating and depressing experience. But it has taught me a lot about safeguarding and having a pastoral mentality.

The pastoral mentality i.e. that of a shepherd, is to find the 1 lost sheep, even if that means leaving the 99 safe sheep in open pasture. This is the mentality of a rescuer, not an administrator.

The Catholic church at the very highest levels has abandoned its pastoral spirit in the case of Opus Dei. It knows full well that there are 1,000s of members of Opus Dei left to rot inside Opus Dei, having been coerced and zombified for years to live Opus Dei rather than live their own true, free lives.

The sheer difficulty of taking on Opus Dei has led the Catholic church down the road of denial and collusion with Opus Dei, and the time-honoured values of doing one's job in one's own patch and focusing on the positives, while airily acknowledging that the church is not perfect, but avoiding the nasty details.

And if you look back into the history of any Catholic parish or school, it is likely that 99% of what went on was wholesome - teachers professionally teaching kids to get high grades in exams day in day out; parents' evenings, after-school clubs, competitions etc. It's just that 1% that one day comes back to haunt them - the teachers or priests that should have not put themselves in the way of kids or vulnerable adults and who sensible people knew were a timebomb. Or actually they knew that they were doing bad things but were not completely bad people i.e. sentimentality stifled brave action. Heads down. Don't get involved.

I've found in my efforts to get accountability that Opus Dei in England has no safeguarding supervision by any Catholic institution in England. In theory, it is accountable to the dicastery of bishops but no one in any Catholic institution has even mentioned this to me, much less passed me the details.

I've had safeguarding advisers recommend to me that I use the Opus Dei safeguarding procedure even though they know full well how opaque and unprofessional it is.

I've had Catholic institutions refer me to the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Association, which is the highest safeguarding oversight body for the RC church in England. But Opus Dei has elected not to come within the CSSA's remit, which the CSSA has told me in writing.

Maybe it's not fair for me to expect every Catholic priest or safeguarding official to know that Opus Dei has no supervision. But they have all passed me on to others without calling me, without knowing whether someone else definitely has a remit for Opus Dei, without following this up. That's how safeguarding voids and appalling cases happen. Everybody does their job according to their remit and contract, which the bad actors work around.

But a true pastor, a true shepherd doesn't let this happen. If they hear about a safeguarding issue, they speak to the victim or the concerned friend or relative as soon as possible. They assure them that either they will deal with it or they will try to find out who else should be dealing with it. And they will follow up those other people and the person reporting concerns until they are satisfied that everything is taken care of.

And if no one has the duty or can act, then the true pastor blows the whistle, internally, then externally, and if all else fails, resigns to find the lost sheep.

It grieves me greatly that I have notified extremely serious concerns to many Catholics who are in safeguarding positions, with good salaries, who have not given a damn and not blown the whistle. They have employment protections to do this. They have access to lawyers and unions to help them. I don't.

In short, for as long as people in positions of care do not care - in their hearts - for the lost sheep that they know about, then there will be more safeguarding voids, scandals etc. And one day, the Opus Dei safeguarding scandal will break. I will do my best to ensure this.

And if this breaks the Catholic church, St Bede's, Fidelis, etc. then so be it. Because any organisation that is built on passing by on the other side when it hears about abuses is worth nothing - less than nothing. It has learnt nothing from the past. It is a sham.