Immaculate Heart College s 1964 Mary s Day celebration (Courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles)
As the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary decided to take up the council s call for renewal. Over the next few years, the sisters carefully and purposefully crafted a list of changes they wanted to take.
They had no idea that path would force them to choose between bowing to church hierarchy or leaving religious life.
But that was the decision they faced in December 1969, when the 560 sisters voted on whether to submit to the demands of Los Angeles Cardinal James McIntyre that they stop their transformation. Disobeying the cardinal, the Vatican said, would mean asking for dispensation from their vows and returning to the laity.