Chuck Darwin<p>Arne Panula was right <br>— a new “Great Awakening” was coming. </p><p>But it wouldn’t rise up from the student population. </p><p>Instead, it would emerge out of the dark-money networks. </p><p>The recruitment of Leonard Leo would cement ties between Opus Dei and the U.S. Supreme Court that had been developing for decades. </p><p>Antonin Scalia had once been at the center of this relationship <br>— the Justice had given talks at the Catholic Information Center and at the Reston Study Center, <br>which was the male numerary residence in Washington’s suburbs that hosted regular get-togethers for Opus Dei members. </p><p>Only the year before, Scalia had also attended an Opus Dei retreat at the prelature’s $10 million, 844-acre property near the Shenandoah Mountains. </p><p>His children and grandchildren attended Opus Dei schools. </p><p>He was best friends with Father Malcolm Kennedy, an Opus Dei priest who often came around for dinner at Scalia’s house, <br>after which the two would often belt out Broadway tunes. </p><p>But with Leo and his network of dark money, Opus Dei’s penetration of Washington’s political and judicial worlds would now reach unprecedented levels. </p><p>That Christmas, like many Christmases before it, the Supreme Court hosted its annual holiday party. </p><p>As always, Father Malcolm was seated at the piano, playing carols for the assembled dignitaries, <br>having been invited by Scalia. </p><p>As he played, the Justices <br>— the most powerful legal figures in America <br>— sang along to the tune played by the Opus Dei priest. </p><p>It was a dark portent for what was to come.</p><p>Leonard Leo's contribution to this reshaping of the Court would soon involve much more than providing a list of amenable conservative justices. </p><p>Within weeks of Scalia’s death in February 2016, <br>he began to mobilize hundreds of millions of dollars to make his dream of reshaping the Court <br>— and wider society <br>— a reality. </p><p>While his appointment to the board of the CIC was still relatively recent, <br>in reality Leo had been juggling several side hustles during his more than twenty years at the Federalist Society <br>— usually at nonprofit organizations linked to Catholic causes close to his heart. </p><p>In 2008, he had become the chair of "Students for Life of America", an organization conceived along the same lines as the Federalist Society, <br>but dedicated to setting up local chapters at high schools and colleges across the country <br>devoted to <a href="https://c.im/tags/fighting" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fighting</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/abortion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>abortion</span></a>. </p><p>In 2012, he joined the "Catholic Association", a small nonprofit dedicated to promoting the Catholic voice in the public arena that had been set up by the Opus Dei activist Neil Corkery. </p><p>Leo’s entrance coincided with a sudden upswing in the finances of the Catholic Association, <br>which hitherto had raised next to no money <br>— but which suddenly saw almost $2 million flood in. </p><p>The money was used to set up two advocacy groups. </p><p>One was called the "Catholic Association Foundation", which soon became a conduit for funding various media initiatives <br>— including a radio station in Maine, where a referendum on same-sex marriage legislation was on the ballot. </p><p>The other was called "Catholic Voices", which had been started by <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jack" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jack</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Valero" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Valero</span></a>, Opus Dei’s spokesperson in London, <br>as a way to shift media narratives concerning Catholic issues. </p><p>Within months of being set up, “volunteers” from the group had given interviews or published comment pieces on a variety of issues, <br>including abortion and same-sex marriage, <br>in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. </p><p>At one conference hosted by the organization, a priest from Opus Dei was on hand to offer the benediction.</p>