Father Thomas G. Bohlin, vicar of Opus Dei in the United States and Canada, led a memorial Mass for three of its members who drowned in June in California. The liturgy was offered the evening of Wednesday, September 10, at St. Agnes Church in Midtown Manhattan.
Matt Anthony, Matt Schoenecker, and Valentino (Val) Creus were members of Opus Dei (“Work of God”). As Opus Dei “numeraries,” the three were lay single men and working professionals, committed to celibacy and dedicated to the evangelization mission of the prelature. More than 350 people attended the Mass. Opus Dei’s North American headquarters is in Manhattan.
Trio joined Opus Dei as college men
“We come together tonight to praise the Lord for his goodness in letting us share in the lives of Val, Matt, and Matt. And we pray for the repose of their souls,” Father Bohlin said in his homily. “We trust in the Lord, who made heaven and earth; and we trust in Jesus Christ.”
He cited the importance of the first reading from Colossians 3, which reads in part, “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”
Father Bohlin noted that the three men “joined Opus Dei as young men at college age, and they were all faithful to the end…All three were cherished by their families – their parents, their siblings, and they miss them dearly. I ask you tonight to pray for their families, who are still suffering so much…The most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the most sweet heart of Mary, pray for us.”
At the end of Mass, the priest told the faithful, “Thank you all for coming tonight. I’m sure that in the communion of saints, Matt, Matt, and Val are very present to us tonight.”
Anthony, 44, Schoenecker, 50, and Creus, 59, died tragically in a swimming accident in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on June 18, 2025. They were part of a group of six hikers enjoying a day outing while taking part in a workshop at Trumbull Manor, a conference center in Novato, California. The tragedy “was not without a touch of heroism,” the Mass program said.
Some of the hikers were swimming near a waterfall well-known to several in the group, although the water was unusually cold and the current unusually powerful. When Creus jumped into the water, he began calling for help. Schoenecker and Anthony immediately leaped in to rescue him. None of the three surfaced. Their bodies were recovered a few days later.
Outpouring of prayers
The loss of the three men has brought “great pain to their families and stirred an outpouring of prayers and condolences from friends and members of the work throughout the world,” the program noted. .“Upon hearing of the incident, the prelate of Opus Dei (Monsignor Fernando Ocariz) immediately wrote to the vicar of the United States and Canada (Father Bohlin), expressing his love and support,” it said.
After the Mass, Javier Alvarez, regional secretary of Opus Dei in the United States and Canada, told The Good Newsroom, “It’s a recognition of the contributions that Matt, Matt and Val had to the lives of everybody involved in Opus Dei – and it’s a testament to the value that was placed on the fidelity to which they lived their vocation to Opus Dei.”
Anthony, born in St. Louis, worked for the Opus Dei administration, serving in Chicago, Rome, and, most recently, New York; Schoenecker, born in Milwaukee, worked in several capacities for Opus Dei, including as director of the Tilden Study Center, a Los Angeles nonprofit owned by the prelature; and Creus, Filipino-born, was a partner at an accounting firm in Los Angeles.
Funerals were held in July in California, Missouri, and Wisconsin, respectively, for each of the three men. Opus Dei was founded in 1928 in Spain by St. Josemaría Escrivá to enable clergy and laity, organized hierarchically, to further the Church’s evangelization in concert with Catholic dioceses.