California In 1869, Fr. Masmitja's friend Bishop
Thaddeus Amat y Brusi of
Monterey,
California, was visiting Spain, and asked for some of the Sisters to come to California. Two years later, with Father Masmitja's approval, Mother Raimunda led nine others to the new California mission. The Sisters established two houses, one in Gilroy and the other in San Juan. Very soon the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart were teaching in several schools in different parts of California. Their lifestyle attracted young women to follow the charisma of Fr. Masmitja, and the Sisters inaugurated a third house in San Luis Obispo (1876), a fourth house in San Bernardino (1880), and finally the last house during the lifetime of Fr. Masmitja was established in Los Angeles (1886). On January 11, 1886, the IHMs began teaching in the Cathedral School of Los Angeles, directly behind the Cathedral. For several years it served as an elementary school, but under the leadership of Sister Gabriel, IHM, an academy for girls was added, four years of high school. The IHMs taught at the Cathedral School until June 1969, and also ran orphanages. Mother Raimunda served as the provincial of the California sisters until her death in 1900. By 1906 the sisters were able to build their own convent, the Motherhouse. Bishop Francis J. Conaty played an important role in the acquisition of the property and the building of this Motherhouse for the IHMs. In 1916 Immaculate Heart College was established in Los Angeles. Part of the original
convent building was razed in 1975 due to fire and safety concerns. In 2010 the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Miami, started a new mission in
La Concordia,
Diocese of Jinotega, Nicaragua, Central America.
Immaculate Heart Community By the 1960s, there were 600 professed Sisters in 68 elementary schools, 11 high schools, one college, and two hospitals. In the late 1960s, a dispute arose between the institute and Archbishop
James Francis McIntyre of Los Angeles. The IHM Sisters took part in a process of renewal led by the psychologist Dr.
Carl Rogers, founder of the
Center for the Study of the Person, an affiliate of the
Western Behavioral Sciences Institute. Carl Rogers and his associates
Bruce Meador and
Bill Coulson conducted
encounter groups according to the principles of the
Human Potential Movement. In such encounter groups, under the direction of a facilitator, participants were encouraged to share their real feelings as they interacted with the other group participants. The first encounter group was held in the summer of 1966 at the Immaculate Heart Novitiate in
Montecito, California. With its apparent success, the experiment was begun
en masse in 1967, with all the sisters and the schools they ran in the Los Angeles Archdiocese participating. The encounter groups facilitated change in the IHM community. It was among the first groups of women religious to modernize their rule in accord with the directives of
Vatican II. Changes included a more democratic form of governance and replacing their religious attire with civilian dress. Cardinal McIntyre refused to let the sisters teach in archdiocese schools unless they wore habits and adhered to a variety of traditional rules. The sisters, in turn, objected to the Archbishop dictating their attire, bedtimes, and hours of prayer. They went on to form a non-canonical group that admits both men and women known as the
Immaculate Heart Community. The 68 sisters who decided to remain were allowed to keep the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as their name. As of 2015 there are five sisters. An ensuing property settlement left remaining the IHM sisters with certain properties, while those dispensed obtained control of
Immaculate Heart College and
Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. The headquarters of the Immaculate Heart Community are at 5515 Franklin Avenue near Western Avenue, in the
Los Feliz district of Los Angeles. Immaculate Heart Blythe Street serves the
San Fernando Valley, located in
Panorama City, Los Angeles. The Immaculate Heart Community has since 1943 run a Center for Spiritual Renewal and La Casa de Maria on 26 acres in
Montecito, California. This was also the novitiate for many years. As of 2011 the Immaculate Heart Community numbered 160 members.
Wichita After failed attempts to resolve differences among themselves regarding the living of their original charism and the essential elements of religious life, Mother Joanne, a former Treasurer of the Institute, Sister Eileen, and Sister Giovanni were directed by the Holy See to find another diocese that would welcome them and their works. They relocated to the
Diocese of Wichita in
Kansas. The IHM Sisters of Wichita work primarily in the ministries of education, youth ministry, retreat work, and catechesis. ==Ownership dispute==