The 'Four Corners' 30th January episode, once more shone the spotlight on the teachings of fundamentalist religions in private schools. This time it was the Catholic conservative cult, Opus Dei, in NSW. The cult can count many high ranking luminaries in their numbers, including NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and his Finance Minister Damien Tudehope, Perrottet is an old boy of the Opus Dei Redfield Collage, where he was school captain, the Perrottet family are active members of this secretive conservative church within a church.

Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva, who once claimed that; "Hitler had been “badly treated” by the world’ and he further declared that ‘Hitler couldn’t have been such a bad person. He couldn’t have killed six million (Jews)." Escriva was also close to the Spanish fascists dictator Franco.

Closer to home Opus Dei schools have received large increases in government funding from both the NSW government of Perrottet and the former Federal government of Morrison. The kind of nonsense they have been peddling in their schools include, HPV vaccine for girls turns them into promiscuous sluts, watching pornography causes holes in the brain and women who are raped bring it on themselves. Department of Education material which didn't agree with Opus Dei beliefs was regularly redacted by the schools. Is this what taxpayers should expect from $20 million of public funding?

Hi Paul,

I missed the Four Corners program last night.

However our parish church here in Melbourne is
one of the most beautiful churches in the country
It's restoration is still on-going and our family
has donated quite a bit towards that. Since 2001,
the administration of this church has been entrusted
to the priests of Opus Dei. A new parish priest replaced
our old one in 2013.

My grand-children were baptized in this beautiful old church.
My husband served there as an altar boy and attended the
nearby Christian brothers schools.

Personally, we've found the priests her very caring and
decent human beings. Therefore I am surprised at this discussion.
I don't know that much about Opus Dei. But I certainly have
not noticed any kind of prejudiced behavious in this parish -
certainly not from the clergy here.

Hi Foxy,

Most cults will often present on the surface as, kind, loving, even serene, but bubbling away down below can be far more sinister things. I don't care if this particular mob, Opus Dei, wants to mix holy water in their kool-aid, providing they are harming no one, so what. What does concern me is millions of dollars of taxpayer money being used to peddle unacceptable, even dangerous nonsense. Also of concern is the rapid growth in funding for this particular mob of private schools in NSW by both the Perrottet and Morrison governments, a coincidence, possibly, favouritism, probably.

Hi Paul,

Of course you're right to be concerned.
I'm only sorry that I missed the Four
Corners program - but I'll try to find it
on the web. As far as I know - a formal
investigation into the activities of Opus Dei
in NSW is being done. It will be interesting
to see what the findings are.

ABC continues its anti-Catholic jihad.

I wonder what Muslim schools are teaching their kids? Don't worry, the ABC will be doing an exposé on that any time now....why are you smirking?

Private schools are allowed to teach their philosophy. Parents fork out significant sums to have their kids taught the way they want. And in a relatively free society they are allowed to do so. Otherwise why have private schools? And while they are doing that they are saving the public system equally significant sums. Sure they get paid a subsidy to help with costs, but that subsidy is about half what it would cost the public system if the private schools didn't exist.

Basically what we have here are the usual authoritarians opposing views they disagree with and seeking to have those views shut down.

Dear mhaze,

As usual that is completely untrue from you and is a line run from the Independent school sector all the time.

"Under the current funding arrangements for private schools, the Commonwealth Government is responsible for funding private schools at 80% of their Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). However, many Victorian private schools are funded at well above 80% as shown in the table below."

"Penleigh & Essendon Grammar School is the top over-funded school. Its cumulative over-funding for 2022 to 2028 will amount to $23.4 million. The school is currently funded at 115% of its Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) by the Commonwealth Government instead of the target 80%. The Victorian Government is responsible for the other 20% of the SRS target, but its current funding of individual private schools and systems is not divulged.

Penleigh & Essendon Grammar is a highly privileged school. Just under 70% of its students are from the highest socio-educationally advantaged (SEA) quartile and over 90% are from the top two quartiles. Only two per cent are from the lowest SEA quartile."

http://saveourschools.com.au/funding/wealthy-victorian-private-schools-massively-over-funded-by-the-morrison-government/