The documentary Rebel Hearts, which was presented in the 1960s, tells us the story of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns community. Those nuns founded the Catholic Church in Los Angeles for equality and freedom. Learn more at Losangeleska.
How did their story begin?
For decades, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary gave lessons in various educational institutions, such as
- Immaculate Heart College
- Immaculate Heart High School
- in Catholic schools located in different parts of Los Angeles.
How can their monastery life be described? The nuns said that it was rigid and conservative. The women dressed in traditional black and white attire and held mandatory group prayer sessions. Every day they had to go to bed at dusk.
Despite the fact that the nuns were teachers, the archdiocese didn’t worry about their own education and most of them had only a Highschool education.
The Vatican Council becomes the impetus
Against that background, in the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council called on the world church to modernize and the nuns decided it was time to act. First of all, they began to read more and listen to theologians and started discussions about how to become more open in order to respond to the calls of the modern world and go beyond the limits of the monastery.
However, James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, a fairly conservative Archbishop of Los Angeles, opposed the liberalization approved by the Second Vatican Council. In 1967, he said that he would ban nuns from classes until they returned to their previous practices. Negotiations continued for several years and the Los Angeles nuns lost that battle.
In 1970, most of the nuns of the Order, 315 out of 400, renounced their vows and a nun’s life. They organized a lay life service, the community of the Immaculate Heart and continued their work. Since its foundation, the nuns have aimed at the alleviation of human suffering and opposed injustice to protect the planet. Their faith was “practical” because the nuns helped the homeless and needed.
Since then, the nuns have become leaders who inspired and continue to inspire others. For example, Rosa Manriquez was a student of the nuns of the Immaculate Heart from her childhood and her activity embodied the values inculcated from a young age.
It’s time to change
One of the sisters, Lenore Dowling, was a nun for more than ten years until the sisters decided it was time for a change. It was the 1960s and the sisters taught in Catholic schools across the city. At that time, the Archbishop of Los Angeles refused to allow the nuns to go outside the monastery territories located on the southern edge of Griffith Park, which meant the ban on returning to ordinary life.
This confrontation was made public and then underlay documentary film, in which 90 years old Dowling told more about herself and the nuns’ rebel.
She also dwelled on the Women’s March in LA downtown in 2018. Lenore Dowling taught at Immaculate Heart College until its closure in 1981.
Attracting attention to Rebel Hearts
The nun has told the story of her sisters and her own to remind the public about those events because some people have never heard of them. Having heard the story of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pedro Kos, the director of Rebel Hearts, was sure that it would inspire others. The nuns’ resilience, perseverance and ability to see far beyond the boundaries of the monastery were impressive.
The nuns were not guided only by faith but also acted as a part of the world. Their story is extremely relevant and motivating, as one of the nuns said:
“They thought they could bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”
