The new documentary Rebel Hearts has been promoted as the exciting story of Catholic sisters forced to battle “the patriarchy of the Catholic Church to fight for equality, their convictions, and livelihoods.”
While some people may be intrigued by this David-versus-Goliath story, it comes off as a superficial, one-sided account of the 1970 tragic breakup of the 600-member Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Los Angeles and offers no new insights on the 50-year-old story.
The sisters are depicted as heroines throughout the film: gentle, obedient, smart, and faithful in trying to follow the dictates of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) to renew religious life.
The villain is Cardinal James McIntyre, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1947 to 1970, who is stereotyped as ultra-conservative, rigid, and vindictive. According to the Rebel Hearts script, Cardinal McIntyre wanted to control the sisters completely, even telling them what to wear, when and how to pray, and what time to go to bed. And when the sisters tried to modernize, the cardinal “fired” them from the archdiocesan schools.
As with most conflicts, the true story of the demise of the well-respected Los Angeles Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters is much more nuanced than the often-erroneous 1960s headlines that punctuate the documentary and seem to be the basis for the film’s script. While Cardinal McIntyre was known to be demanding, the leaders of the 300 sisters who left the Immaculate Heart order were not the blameless victims depicted in the film.
To tell the story, writer/producer Shawnee Isaac-Smith and writer/director Pedro Kos rely heavily on the testimony of three of those former leaders: Anita Caspary (1915-2011) former mother general of the order who founded the secular Immaculate Heart Community; Helen Kelley (1925-2019) former president of now-defunct Immaculata College; and Patricia Reif (1930-2002) a former philosophy professor at the college.
Some reviews of the film rave over archival video interviews of these and other former Immaculate Heart sisters, which had been shot “over a 20-year period” by Isaac-Smith; but a major weakness in use of these videos is the notable absence of any date stamps. Thus, the viewer has no idea even in what decade the speaker was interviewed or that the person is now deceased.
The result is a shallow storyline that would have benefited from the guidance of a knowledgeable Catholic Church historian who could have corrected the misinformation in the film. For example:
The Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters were not a “cloistered” order; they were apostolic sisters who worked outside convent walls.
Cardinal McIntyre did not “force” sisters to teach; their main apostolate was teaching, and they voluntarily came to California.
The male hierarchy did not dictate customs and habits for women religious: Religious orders set their own particular rules. In fact, as early as 1950, Pope Pius XII had urged religious orders to modernize some of those rules.
Orders of sisters did not teach “for free,” as the film reports. They were paid, albeit a meager salary, and usually they were provided with a convent by the parish in which they taught, and there were safety nets for health care.
Sisters were not sent into classrooms fresh out of high school: They first had to complete a year of postulancy that often included teacher training, and one year of novitiate. It is true that sisters often began teaching without college degrees in the baby-boom years, but this also was true of lay teachers. The difference was that the sisters had a mentoring system in which veterans helped the rookies.
The 1967 decision of the Immaculate Heart sisters to make the habit, community life, and common prayer optional was not in keeping with Vatican II documents or canon law, and a Vatican investigation confirmed the deviance.
The Immaculate Heart sisters were not “fired” from the schools by Cardinal McIntyre because they had reasonable objections to difficult teaching conditions; Mother Caspary withdrew them from the schools because Cardinal McIntyre wanted them to conform to Church law if they were going to be in the schools.
It was not the women who left the Immaculate Heart order who became penniless, as the film depicts: Mother Caspary’s secular Immaculate Heart Community was worth millions, for she had transferred all the Immaculate Heart properties to the secular community, which was a violation of canon law. Rather, it was the 54 sisters who chose to remain in the Immaculate Heart of Mary religious institute in service to the Church who were left abandoned and without resources.
Additionally, the film suffers from important omissions. While repetitive archival videos of 1960s protests give a flavor of that era of chaos and widespread questioning of authority, there is no mention that the sisters participated in 1960s “sensitivity training” by psychologists Carl Rogers and William Coulson, and the results were disastrous.
Coulson, who came to regret his role because it caused so many religious orders to fall apart, told this reviewer in a 1995 interview: “We freed everybody from local doctrine. They were no longer constrained by rules because we persuaded them to make their own rules for themselves.”
The film does not reveal much about the current state of the secular Immaculate Heart Community that Mother Caspary had envisioned as the ideal free way of living and working for justice. Her 2011 obituary reported 160 community members at that time. A community spokesperson in the film does relate that about half the members are “original,” which means half are at least 75 years of age, so its future seems tenuous.
Ultimately, Rebel Hearts fails by leaving the viewer with the impression that the number of sisters has declined (from 180,000 in 1965 to 40,000 today) because the Church put a stop to renewal of religious orders. In reality, the Church continues to urge proper renewal, and some orders have done so successfully, including the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Wichita, a teaching order founded in 1976 by three of the Los Angeles Immaculate Heart sisters who continued to serve the Church….
The above comes from an August 5 story by Ann Carey in Angelus News.
Renewal, in this case was a disastrous embrace of new age nonsense. Another example of the bad fruits of modernism.
This is liberal America”s message: Men evil, Women virtuous (when it meets their purpose). Then they will claim that there is no difference between men and women. Which is it liberal America?
For anyone wanting to read more details about the horrible, horrible! actions taking by Dr. Coulson and Dr. Carl Rogers, a good book explores this in a full chapter. “The Road to Malpsychia: Humanistic Psychology and Our Discontents” by Joyce Milton. For someone like me, who lived through the 1960’s, the book is an eye opener. The era opened the door to the occult New Age, the Enneagram, labyrinths in Catholic churches, and other abuses and novelties. Dr. Coulson, a Catholic and family man, became repented and toured the country and apologizing to parents.
Roberta– I often used to wonder how so many “smart” nuns who were well-educated, and really seemed intelligent– could suddenly get “tricked” and “brainwashed” into abandoning all their excellent religious training and holy vows– for a bunch of trivial, stupid, meaningless, shallow, modernist, worldly “nutcase” nonsense and garbage. I can see how a “nutcase” like the shallow “pop artist,” Corita Kent, could get into some weird, modern “artistic hippie garbage”– she was no doubt unbalanced to begin with. But didn’t any of these nuns– have a brain? And didn’t their religious devotion and desire for God– mean something? All the married women sitting in the church pews during that time, could no doubt see straight through all this “1960s garbage”– and so detested it. And many didn’t have half the fine education and training of these “smart” and “holy” nuns we once admired.
Almost all the teaching orders of nuns collapsed during this time, and all the Catholic schools began to close. I recall one day, in the late 1960s, talking with some friends, to a Mother Superior of a well-known half-contemplative, half-active order, also which had many nuns who taught at high school and university levels. She suddenly expressed to us that she and all the other sisters had been woefully “denied” the joys of a “fulfilling” married life and children. And they were “working for the Church for nothing.” And their religious habits were “outdated,” no good anymore. Next, she started into some new, ridiculous “feminist” ideas. We were so shocked. I said, “but aren’t you over-idealizing marriage, children, and women’s “freedom,” also, to pursue worldly “working girl” careers, for lots of useless money and self-gain?? What have you to gain by all of that? The vocation to Marriage and children is the common life, which most are called to. You were called to something special, and holy, for God– religious life. Doesn’t that mean anything to you anymore? What will you tell aspiring young nuns?” She replied with a bunch of “feminist-style” mindless garbage, and we just gave up and left. She and many other “intelligent” nuns had Master’s degrees, and were “very smart” in their fields. But the Devil was smarter– and tricked them right out of their religious vocations.
The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart May have not been heroines, but Cardinal McIntyre was no saint.
So so many nuns entire orders just completely destroyed and never to be seen again during the New Springtime of “renewal” of the 60’s and 70’s. I remember during my youth in the 70’s seeing all those felt banners on the altars screaming renew renew, I was to young to remember the TLM but even then I somehow knew that drums, guitars, hand holding, clapping, kiss of peace, cheap looking vestments, priests trying to be funny was somehow wrong and had nothing to do with Catholicism. During my first Holy Communion when we sang the Our Father it was to drums and guitars and clapping, I looked at my Slovak Grandmother who had a look of disgust on her face and asked her later why she stopped going Mass years ago, her response was it’s “not Catholic” anymore sweetheart. I soon started looking into what she meant and slowly discovered what the True Mass was prior to the Second Vatican Council and was angry at what was taken from us and replaced with something entirely alien and just plain made up. In less than 50 years we had a Church that was solid where Mass attendance was at 75% now it is at 10%, closed churches, convents, seminaries, schools, hospitals, no belief in the real presence, and yet the New Springtime was going to take the Church into the modern era and make it even better. Well as one can see from the above story it destroyed an entire order of nuns in less than 20 years and now the current pope has with one letter tried to destroy the Traditional Latin Mass which of course he has no authority to do and will fail on this effort. The “renew” movement was an entire failure yet in one aspect it was a success: it destroyed entire congregations of nuns and priests, this is the legacy of the Second Vatican Council intentional or not but it succeeded in one respect sadly.
Your grandmother was committing mortal sin by not attending Mass. Did she repent? I will pray for her soul.
I had a similar reaction as you did to what is called “the silly season” in the Church.
But you must realize that all that is extraneous.
Christ is present and the Sacrifice of Calvary renewed at every Catholic Mass.
Sad, you and other posters here, should refrain from making rude comments about other posters’ mothers, grandmothers, and all other relatives, accusing them of “committing mortal sins.” That is a strictly private, personal matter. One’s mother, grandmother and other family members, are sacred. You do not know them, and will will never meet them.
So you are not Catholic?
It is not nice to make rude comments about someone’s Mother or Grandmother– and you have never even met these people before — and never will. To accuse somebody of a mortal sin, is sort of like saying, that person is “going to hell.” Not nice. Is your Mother or Grandmother a lapsed Catholic? Be respectful.
My mother was a lapsed Catholic and she went back to Church and received Communion without Confession due to the bad advice of a relative (one who thinks she knows better than the Church.) She refused to see a priest for her last anointing but another relative got her the sacrament after she got so doped up she could not resist. I never knew her to go to Confession.
She did say the rosary every day (not throughout her life but later).
If you told me that my mother was in mortal sin, I would say “objectively so.” I would not be offended by that. I would not take it as an insult. I would assume that I was being talked to by a Catholic. Could she be in hell? Yes. There is a plenary indulgence for Catholics at the moment of death if they are in the habit of saying some prayers. You always believe the person is in Purgatory and pray for them.
I pray for her. I hope for God’s mercy for her. The relative that told her she could go to Communion believes she is in Heaven. Because that is what they want to believe. (That relative also believes there is nothing sinful about what gay people do, if they are married.)
ABC, grave matter, full knowledge, full consent of the will. Yes, we cannot say for sure that anyone is in mortal sin-since Vatican II. There are two kinds of sin, mortal and venial. The consequence of unrepented mortal sin is hell. You can go to hell for missing Sunday Mass. Legitimate reasons to miss Mass are illness, care of infants, care of sick. Not liking the priest or the music or the way things are done at Mass is not a legitimate reason. It is a temptation.
In traditional Catholicism, people just call mortal sin a mortal sin. It is not a judgement on the person The three conditions are known. Everybody understands that there can be circumstances which limit one’s culpability and guilt. Everyone understands that they can be repented of and confessed.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.
I asked if she repented. He did not say yes. I used to be a lapsed Catholic and if I had died during that time, I would have gone to hell.
Not necessarily. If Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are good Catholics who will go to heaven, you probably are too.
They don’t look like they are on the path to Heaven to me. They can repent, confess and do penance/
They do not look like they are on the path to Heaven to me. They need to repent, Confess and do penance. May God have mercy on all of us.
Faithful Catholics seem to be very few.
Sad– no, you are so wrong. Only God can judge a soul. All we can do, is do our best with the knowledge and understanding we have. Do not be a legalist. Be a Catholic Christian instead. I am sure your mother did not avoid the Confessional for evil reasons. Many people may go to Mass– but have wicked hearts and do not practice the Faith– including some priests, unfortunately.
I have a relative that is a bi-sexual. She does not attend Mass. I have another relative who does not attend Mass. They are marrying a person who is a Satanist who does not believe in the devil. Might they be in mortal sin?
Defending your relative who does not attend Mass is being an accessory to the grave sin.
How dare you say my Grandmother committed a mortal sin shame on you and by the way you are not her confessor. She was a pious Roman Catholic who could not sit in a pew watching giant puppets, priests dressed as clowns acting like clowns, dancing girls, altar girls, drums and guitars blasting foul music, communion in the hand while standing, improper dress codes, Our Lord will judge her not you. Your free to comment because this is still the United States of America, under the fake Catholic Joe Biden it may not be for much longer with his utter destruction of America.
So you do not accept Catholic teaching?
Accept– You and “Sad” and many others need to get your questions cleared up by a priest. Only God knows the truth and destiny of each soul. It is also the inner intention of a person that is important, not the outward display of apparent conformity to the Faith. I once met a poor group of Catholic college girls from Asian countries, who told me, in 1970, that they were too horrified by the sudden, new, bizarre, and terribly blasphemous Masses being held at their Catholic chapel on campus. Too wild, too blasphemous. No priest for them to talk to. So, they got together in a small group, by themselves, and read Sacred Scripture and prayed the Rosary and observed the Church liturgical calendar. This went on for three years. Finally, the local Bishop closed down that “wild” college campus “ministry,” and the Masses became normal and decent, with new priests in charge. The Asian girls found out, and safely returned to Mass attendance there.
Christifidelis, it is not OK to sin with a good intention. If you see blasphemy at Mass, you are to report it, to pray in reparation, to make sacrifices. You do not go do a Bible study and consider that Catholic worship.
It would seem that you do not ‘accept’ Catholic teaching, Accept. You have no authority to judge souls…although it may boost your ego to believe otherwise.
Anonymous, you need a moniker, don’t you, or they should not print your posts. You do not know the case of the Asian girls which I mentioned previously. They all were foreign students, with little English. They were very serious Catholics. The priest was using questionable “bread and wine” and “ad libbing” consecrations, not reading correct Eucharistic Prayers. There was a lot of wild “hippie” stuff going on, and lots of drugs and sex. Terrible! The Bishop closed down this terribly blasphemous “ministry.” Always ask questions before you judge.
Not OK [re-named by Cal Catholic editor], the Consecration is a very exact thing during the Mass. All the Sacraments have exact formulas. If they are not correctly performed, then the Sacrament has no validity ar all. Sacraments of the Church that are not correctly performed should be totally rejected– and you should immediately notify the Diocesan Bishop/Archbishop of the fraud. And call the police, too, if there is dangerous immorality and criminal activity going on.
Romulus Augustus, so you do not accept the Church’s teaching on the 3rd Commandment?
And you know full well that there were no giant puppets, priests dressed as clowns or dancing girls.
So you do not accept the first commandment, sad? Your commentary would indicate that you seem confused about who the Lord is. Clue: You aren’t the God, thank God.
And you know full well that you lack the omniscience to say with any certainty whether there were giant puppets, priests dressed as clowns or dancing girl.
There’s beam calling you, Sad.
There are a lot of Catholics who do not think it is a sin to miss Mass. But it is.
I know another person like this. Their grandmother married a divorced man and could not take communion. But of course, to them, the grandmother is sinless and it’s the fault of the mean old Catholic Church with all its stupid rules trying to control everyone.
I do not think Romulus’s grandmother’s case was the same. Romulus’s grandmother had probably been told all her life about the deconstruction of the Catholic Church in England and other countries when Protestants destroyed high altars, took out altar rails, banned the Holy Eucharist & served the Lord’s Supper (just a memorial), & smashed statues in many countries. What would you she think when some supposedly Catholic priests did the same thing after V II. She was confused not sinful.
I usually see this the other way around where it is the Catholic parents whose kids can do no wrong. They are fine with Church teaching until their kid comes out as gay, or cohabits, or aborts a pregnancy from the boy they did not want in their family. Then the Church doesn’t understand what the real world is like.
Same with birth control. Those priests don’t know what it is like to be married. Or IVF. Our grandbaby is a miracle. I don’t care what the church says.
Romulus – I offer you my compassion regarding your post about your Grandmother’s dismay with the Church at the time. My own mother had to slap a priest in front of people for having a filthy mouth. My mother had a period when she did not attend Mass, but it resolved itself and she continues to be my heroine in Heaven for her faith-filled life.
Axiom– your mother publicly slapped a priest for having a filthy mouth? Good for her! One time, in 1968, my mother was busy with a group at our church, with Christmas preparations. One of the teaching nuns at the Catholic school, said she would miss an important Christmas preparation, because she now suddenly had weekly beauty shop appointments to get her hair done, and had other new adjustments to make, as the nuns were wearing new, modified, shorter religious habits– and no veil. My mother and others were horrified. Finally my “no nonsense,” “emotionally expressive” Italian mother flashed her lovely but powerful dark eyes straight at the young and popular nun, and said, “Sister, you owe it to the church and to the children– especially your 3rd grade students. You will reschedule your beauty appt. and be here. No more excuses. Set the example.” There was a painful, long silence. Finally, the nun said, “Okay. Yes, I will be here.” Ironically, all women and girls still wore mantillas, scarves, or hats in church, until the mid-1970s. The nun would be wearing a mantilla instead of her veil, with her habit.
What is wrong with people? Hitting someone is a sin. Hitting a priest is probably a grave sin.
Romulus– here is something you might enjoy! Today in my email inbox, I got an interesting “Crisis” magazine article, with videos, all about a new film called “Mass of the Ages,” a movie trilogy now being made by a filmmaker named Caneron O’Hearn– are you familiar with this project? Here are two links:
https://theliturgy.org/
Oh– I think I will send the second link as soon as I am sure of how to do it– I hope to do this accurately.
Romulus– here is the second link to the video about the new film, “The Mass of the Ages”–
I hope this works!
https://youtu.be/zrfa64TVvfE
Romulus– Looks like both links worked! I am so happy. If you scroll down on the “theliturgy.org” link, you will see a wonderful video, and lots of other wonderful things. Too bad they have commercials on the YouTube videos, before you can see the one you want– but it’s there. I am so happy about this. It worked. Oh– I misspelled Cameron O’Hearn’s name. Sounds like a wonderful film project Hope it is very successful.
I have experienced a lot of nonsense with how some people acted during Mass, including Priests. I once walked in on a “Clown Mass”, where the Priest was dressed like a clown, complete with the floppy shoes, red rubber nose and bright red wig. In another parish I witnessed a priest giving out jelly beans instead of Holy Communion at Mass (he was the Pastor and eventually he got rid of me and the rest of the Priests in the parish so he could continue with the silliness). But I’ve also been to Novus Ordo Masses that were dignified and beautiful. Several times at an Ordination, a Chrism Mass, an Easter Vigil or a Sunday or daily Mass I see great reverence. The music may not be perfect, the people and priest have their faults and maybe the Church building isn’t a work of art, but the Mass is wonderful. This is true of a tiny Church I visited in a small town in Mexico. The Church was built of wood by the people in the town. The Priest’s vestments were shabby because that’s all they could afford. But the people and the Priest were reverent and joyful (not wacko, but truly joyful). There were families and older people and a sense of love among the people for the Eucharist and for each other. There wasn’t a “High Church” feel to it, but it was truly God’s family doing the best they could in their situation.
I would NEVER disparage Mass, whether it was a Latin Mass in a great Basilica or a Spanish Mass in a tiny chapel, or Mass in Mandarin in a persecuted Church in a tiny room with people whispering for fear of Communist troops.
I am glad that in most places the felt banners, the goofy songs and the vestments made of paper mache or glitter cloth are gone. I am happy that we don’t have the “Surfer Jesus” instead of a Crucifix in most places. I broke a beer stein I saw used at Mass instead of a Chalice and put an end to using homemade whole wheat and honey bread at a Catholic retreat I used to help with. But if someone wants to hold hands with the person next to them or actually sing during Mass instead of keeping their head down and fearing to look at the altar or the person next to them I am fine with that.
I have actually smiled during Mass, which might disturb some folks.
I once had a man stop me after Mass and tell me that I was a “liberal priest”. He had a growl in his voice. I asked him why he said that. He said “You looked at the people during the Consecration!” I said “Well, if you want to go down that road you really should be kneeling to kiss my hand while you yell at me. After all, I’m a Priest and you are a mere layman”. He didn’t see the humor in what I was saying. I said “You can’t have it both ways. Either we are family or I am your Lord and Superior”.
Obviously I am nobody’s “Lord and superior”. I’m just a retired Priest who loves Mass and doesn’t mind washing feet. I’m also aware that sometimes I am a real knucklehead.
See, this is how heresy and schism spread. There is no Novus Ordo Mass-there is Mass.
Um, maybe a history book would help.
A history book is not infallible nor a sure norm.
Use the Bible and the Catechism.
The Catechism of Pius V is very clear on heretics and schismatics and the excommunicated being the only sinners that no longer belong to the Church.
Wondering why part of this post was removed.
People watching the gay agenda noted early on that they were changing words to further the agenda and acceptance of homosexuality.
Same thing happens with heresy and schism.
Almost every Catholic these days believes something heretical or schismatic. Ideas spread and error spreads. They spread through words.
We had our daughter in private Catholic school until the 8th grade when the nuns discarded their habits and the school, and left to teach Los Angeles, inner-city kids. She is now 64 and a non-Catholic. (She prefers to burn sage and wave a feather) It makes you realize how long the revolution has been going on.
To see how grave things in the Church are, read this:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/vatican-sources-pope-francis-will-use-spy-system-left-wing-cardinal-to-suppress-traditional-latin-mass/
I’ve met many of the ex-sisters of the IMC, plus many who stayed. Incredible powerful women. When I was a kid, I lived through the traditional mass, and then the change to the Vatican II masses. One week it was Latin and the next week it was English. I’d say, overall, according the Pew Research Data, all churches are suffering declines in membership, even the evangelical mega churches. Church attendance started its rapid decline in 2000. I found both the traditional services and the guitar Neuman center student services wonderful. The nuns took us girls very seriously, and I had some of the best philosophical discussion with very learned sisters through junior high and high school. Much later in life, I could not support an all male priesthood, and found the courage of women going into ministry, the Episcopal priesthood quite dramatic and wonderful. Now that the church has to come to terms with the global scandals of child sexual abuse of children by that male priesthood should be a wake up call. Whether it was pre or post Vatican II, the male priesthood was not a safe place for kids. Maybe they really will reform and do a massive house cleaning, but the Sisters in Los Angeles definitely inspired me. I loved Sister Corita Kent’s art work, and the nuns on the bus was well. Most Americans admire nuns, and women see them as heroines throughout time.
Radical LGBT Troll Alert.
Overall church attend is going down because of “nuns” like this who are more interested in being women then women of God! Also their are bright sports! The traditional orders are booming- why? because they still live a religious life- not secular women dressed in Christian Witness symbols protesting things instead of working with God’s people.
I was told today by a 78 year old woman that the young won’t go to church unless we play rock music at Mass.
Awww…that’s cute.
Just the facts– Most rock “music” is Satanic and terribly wrong for even secular occasions.
I do not think anyone can speak for all teens and young people. They are all different, just as we adults are all different. My husband and I accidentally went to a rock mass, and I heard a young woman behind us in her early twenties, say, “This is terrible.” She was disgusted.
Since I chose the time to go to mass at that church, my husband said to me afterward, “Don’t ever bring me to one of these things again.” I had no idea it would be a rock mass. We danced rock and roll when younger, but never wanted it at mass. Not the proper time nor place.
What a terrible loss, the demise of the Immaculate Heart nuns, and loss of almost all of our teaching orders of nuns, in the post-Conciliar era. Well, our Archbishop has a program to train interested priests to say the beautiful old Latin Mass. One of them, Fr. Hoang Van Thuan, will offer his first Latin Tridentine Mass tonight, Fri. Aug. 6th, at 7pm, at Our Lady of the Visitation church in SF.
It’s no accident that the religious orders that are thriving and growing are those that remained faithful to the magisterial teachings of the church…https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-new-sisterhood-traditional-orders-are-booming/
Sorry, I misspelled the name of the church! It is called the Church of the Visitacion, and the school is Our Lady of the Visitacion School.
Thank you to the fellow commenters on here for speaking up for my Grandmother it sure means a lot to me, again many Thanks!
Your dear grandmother was a scandalized/victimized sheep. God bless her for her Catholic sensibilities.
Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago: “My task was to organize defeat, so as to hasten the onset of revolution. I enlisted under the name of Petrov. . . . When the time came, I was able to take three whole battalions out of the front lines with me – the best day’s work I ever did.”
The proof is in the pudding. The veil-less wonders left and now their “new” community is dead…it had almost no new members and those that are left are guitar strumming hippies that forgot that they made a religious vow of obedience to God. After the 220 trouble makers left in 1968the remaining IHM Sisters moved to Kansas and their community is young and thriving: https://sistersihmofwichita.org/
I’ve read that a lot of millennials are becoming nuns, but that has some people worried. I don’t know why. That must be good for the church.
Bishop Barron has some videos about the rise of nuns in America.
A few are married and three are male.
From an 1993 article in the LA Times.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-03-me-18589-story.html
And in case I forgot to put a name on my last post:
https://theconversation.com/how-a-group-of-california-nuns-challenged-the-catholic-church-83944