How much is the opportunity to keep a slave in France

Since the abolition of slavery in 1848, the progenitor of human rights of France took more than a century and a half to finally recognize slavery to the crime against humanity at the legislative level. The Frenchwoman Catherine Tisier , who for 13 years was brutally exploited in the Catholic organization of the OPUS Dei , did not have such a reserve of time to fight for their rights. Yes, and forces too - over the years of forced labor, she became disabled. Meanwhile, after ten years of investigation, the French court never saw the victims in it, even refusing compensation for moral damage. The defendant organized a simple fine of 30,000 euros for “unworthy wages”.

At first, a few words about whom one on one Frenchwoman decided to oppose. Opus Dei (lat. The “God of God”) is an influential Catholic organization, founded back in 1928 by the Spanish priest Hosemaria Escriva de Balager. Wide masses learned about its existence after the release of Dan Brown’s novel “Da Vinci Code”, in which Opus Dei seems to be a sect of fanatics-mahists.

Meanwhile, despite some similarity, Opus Dei is not a sect. Moreover, Pontiff John Pavel II, who was supposedly himself at the OPUS Dei, in 1982 appropriated the organizations of the exclusive status of the personal prelate of the Catholic Church. This means that Opus Dei obeys only the pope. The organization has its own branches in 90 countries. Opus Dei toughly controls everyone who enters its ranks. “Totalitarian police state,” as its former supporters characterize.

Opus Dei is often criticized for sectarian methods of recruiting "beginners". One of the most common practices is the so -called “underwater fishing” or “Love Bombing”. Each adept of the organization should “catch” at least two potential supporters during the year. To do this, he must “crush” them with friendship and love, become closer than his brother and matchmakers, and then already lead the people who were fucked up in Opus Dei, so far hot.

Catherine Tisier got into Opus Dei Babal in the other way. Her parents thought about the future of her daughter when she was 14 years old, and decided to send her to study hotel business. As it turned out later , at the boarding school where Catherine got, they taught not only how to become the boss to all washbasins. A special place in the program was given to Christian education, which was taught by OPUS Dei ministers. For two years of study at the school, Katrin practically stopped coming home. According to her, the parents “began to appear to her the devil,” and all the memories of a past life seemed to be erased from memory. At the end of her studies, Katrin joined the OPUS Dei and vowed "poverty, chastity and obedience." In the tag about the ranks of the organization, she was listed as an auxiliary worker responsible for cleaning.

All the necessary formalities were observed: official labor contracts were concluded with Catherine and taxes were paid carefully. The clock in excess of the norm was formalized as voluntary work. But the real working conditions did not fit into the framework of the French Labor Code. For 13 years, Catherine worked on OPUS Dei and its organizations every day without weekends from 7 am to 22 pm with breaks for prayer and self -flagellation. Like the monk Silas from the novel by Dan Brown, a member of the Opus Dei Catherine wore a garter on her thigh with pointed iron spikes that crashed into the flesh at each movement.

The Frenchwoman is not able to say what salary she was paid for work. Money to the account, according to her, was transferred, but she did not have access to him. At the request of the organization, she was forced to sign on empty sheets of a checkbook, which were subsequently filled without its knowledge. Thus, money from her account was returned to the Opus Dei pocket. The organization allegedly charged them on the expense of paying for Catherine.

Throughout all these years, the woman was under the constant observation of the so -called mentors and had no right to go out without escort. According to Catherine, she was regularly sent for examination to the member doctor Opus Dei, from which she went out with a long prescription for tranquilizers, which, of course, did not suspect.

Thirteen years of such a life turned Catherine into a weak disabled person. “I weighed 39 kg, could not eat or wash without outside help. I could not keep my head directly. And at the same time, every day I was forced to perform work in the same mode, ” says the Frenchwoman. Katrin's parents, shocked by her daughter’s condition, almost force her to return home. After some time, the woman filed a complaint with the court against OPUS Dei and the ACUT organization close to her, which concluded labor contracts with Catherine.

Despite the disability assigned to the woman, the French investigating authorities for ten years could not collect enough evidence to attract OPUS Dei under an article on “abuse of weakness” and “a threat to human life”. From the whole list of accusations, as a result, only two completely innocent remained: “for unworthy wages” and “shadow employment”. The defense insisted on paying 600,000 euros as a moral compensation for slave labor, but the court limited himself to the punishment of the accused as a fine of a rather modest size - 30,000 euros for ACUT and 3,000 for two OPUS Dei members.

According to Katrin Tisier, in Opus Dei there are other enslaved ones like her, but none of them dared to oppose such a powerful organization. However, the Frenchwoman’s lawyer Rodolf Bossl did not seem to expect this: “These people have no chains on their feet, their prison is their own head.”