I don’t like secret societies in general.
It gives a chance for groups to form within groups as evidently happened within Opus Dei, a secret Catholic organization. A famous spy was a member.
Let There Be Light
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0510.baumann.html
A look inside the hidden world of Opus Dei.
Some know it as the diabolical secret organization of monk-assassins depicted in the The Da Vinci Code. Others recall it in vague connection with Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who spied for Russia. Those inside the beltway may be familiar with the role it played in the conversion to Catholicism of Sen. Sam Brownback, Robert Bork, and syndicated columnist Robert Novak—though apparently none of them numbers himself among the roughly 3,000 members the group claims to have in the United States. (Nor, despite rumors, do Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former FBI director Louis Freeh, or Sen. Rick Santorum.) ...
Suspicions about the group’s allegedly eccentric character were confirmed for some by the spy scandal surrounding Robert Hanssen, which included a bizarre, voyeuristic, sexual dimension as well. Hanssen and his wife were “supernumerary” members of Opus Dei. Supernumeraries comprise the bulk of Opus Dei’s membership (affiliation is also available as an “associate” or “cooperator”). Most supernumeraries are married, and their spiritual practice mirrors that of celibate numeraries. Hanssen actually confessed his spying to an Opus Dei priest. In a good example of why Opus Dei’s myopic spirituality is worrisome, the priest told Hanssen to stop spying and to give his blood money to charity, but not to turn himself in. His family—at one level Opus Dei is all about (large) family values—came first.
I’ve heard of them. What I heard was positive though. That they were conservative.
I get your POV on such groups though. I don’t much secrecy either, not knowing.