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Since there is a considerable swamping of news headlines with the imminent Gulf war, there is little attention being given to the doings of the Catholic Church and their clergy, whether good or bad. I claim that many of these doings affect us all, whether Catholic or not. War has always received too much attention and support from the public, rather than other cultural trends that also affect our life force. In 1965 at the time of Vatican II, a religious community of nuns in Los Angeles were under censure by Cardinal McIntyre for an independence of spirit and the adoption of new ways of conduct in the religious life of their community that involved their schools. At the time they had a college and a high school on Western adjoining Franklin. Immaculate Heart College was so outstanding a school that it enjoyed support and funding from the wealthier areas of Los Angeles regardless of religious identity. It was an innovative and dedicated school. They had a well known artist, Corita Kent, highlighting the school and ideas about justice in posters and exhibits. An end finally came to this dispute. Their community had to withdraw from their place in the diocesan scheme. They sold the college to the American Film Institute. They kept the high school and they instituted a graduate program in Feminine Spirituality at an office location in West Los Angeles and then later near Bullocks Wilshire, or where Bullocks was located. The Mother Superior of the community at the time has written an account of that history and the functioning of the community since the break-up. They lost funding and stature thereafter even though Mrs. Bing Crosby had gifted them in a prior year with a million dollars. I had known that this account of the breakup was in the process of being written for many year by Sister Anita Caspary. In the meantime and for 35 years the community has emphasized low profile functioning. I had assumed that publication would mean publicity and arguments. I have seen no reviews. Iraq has swamped even Feminist Spirituality so that Sisterhood and probably Fraternity has not received profiling .
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