Take Heart: Growing as a Faith Community

The Immaculate Heart Community chronicles the pioneer years of the Immaculate Heart Community as they worked in California through the gold rush, post-Civil War, through railroad expansion and the massive development of Los Angeles. Their journey placed them in the position of embracing the pleas of Pope John XXIII in Vatican II to examine deeply their life in religious community and to discern their place in the modern world. Confronted by adamant strictures from Cardinal James McIntyre, this community ultimately embraced a new, noncanonical future as a lay community devoted to the marginalized of society, seeking social justice. Acting with conscience, the withdrawal of four hundred sisters from canonical status was the largest departure in the history of the Catholic Church. Their dramatic story has not ended. For the first time, this study examines the forty-five years of community life after the momentous decision and offers insight into the life of a nonprofit lay Christian community blending former nuns, men, women, married and single, all pursuing the goal of social equity in our times.