Investigations have been ordered after a disturbing look into schools linked to ultra conservative Catholic group Opus Dei this week. 

The ABC’s Four Corners has revealed claims from dozens of former students of schools run by the small-but-powerful Catholic organisation.

Students said they were inculcated with wildly dangerous and incorrect information at Opus Dei schools, including being told that masturbation is a disorder, and that watching pornography would cause holes to form in their brains.

Students were also discouraged from getting the life-saving HPV cancer vaccine, denied information by edited or redacted text books, encouraged to engage in homophobia and often recruited to Opus Dei - a cult-like sect that engages in ritual self-harm, among other practices. 

Many former students were left with severe psychological damage.

Faced with the claims this week, the schools said many of the unethical and immoral practices alleged in the media reports had ceased. 

New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet - himself a member of Opus Dei, former captain of one of the group’s schools and ongoing supporter of the backward Catholic regime - has asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to launch an investigation into the schools.

“The allegations should be investigated by the appropriate state body,” a spokesperson for the premier said.

Opus Dei schools are officially listed as ‘Independent’, running outside the Catholic Education system. They take in millions of dollars per year in state and federal funding. 

As well as the NSW probe, the Federal Government says an independent investigator may be asked to determine if Opus Dei schools have breached the Commonwealth Education Act.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said he hopes the NSW authorities investigate properly. 

“Depending on what the outcome of that investigation is, my department has the power to appoint an independent person to conduct their own investigation,” Mr Clare said.

Opus Dei has responded since the stories aired, saying it has “a deep respect for the women and men” allegedly abused at its schools. 

“We were saddened to hear of their experiences and of the way they felt about them,” its statement said.

“Over the last 60 years, thousands of Australians have benefited from initiatives offered by Opus Dei, including personal and spiritual guidance, retreats, formation in the Catholic faith, courses that help married women and men, service projects to Pacific countries and indigenous communities, and volunteering to assist the vulnerable/sick, aged and homeless,” the sect said. 

“The Prelature of Opus Dei promotes the message that work, family life, and other ordinary activities are occasions for spiritual union with Jesus Christ.”

Queensland senator Matt Canavan said he wanted to “thank” the ABC program for the “wonderful promotion of a Catholic education”.

“I will choose a school that promotes chastity and prudence … every day of the week!”

The Greens have called for federal and state governments to withdraw funding from the four Opus Dei schools in NSW, which together received more than $20 million in 2021.

“To use public funds to promote bigotry and self-harm is beyond the pale,” federal Greens spokesperson Penny Allman-Payne said. 

“Instead of continuing to fund insular, out-of-touch institutions, the NSW and federal governments should show some backbone and strip these schools of funding.”