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A group of Californian nuns left their convent and set up their own independent community in 1970. They’d wanted to reform the convent’s rules – including abandoning their traditional habit and set prayer times – but their conservative cardinal refused to discuss change. Former Sister Lucia Van Ruiten tells Witness History about the crisis they caused in the Catholic church.

(Photo: Nuns from the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary play guitars at the Mary's Day parade, 1964. Courtesy of the Immaculate Heart Community)