A Former Nun’s Change of Heart

When Barbara Dugan graduated from law school, she didn’t start her own practice or get a job in a law firm. Instead, after working for awhile in a police department, she entered a convent at the age of 39.

“As I was coming to the close of law school, I began thinking of it, or it began pressing itself into my mind,” said Dugan, who was divorced.

Dugan was introduced to her order, Religious Sisters of Charity, by an ex-nun who taught catechism classes with her at St. Bonaventure Church in Huntington Beach. Dugan was impressed that someone who had left a community would still think so highly of it.

She later followed that woman’s path, becoming one of the many sisters to leave religious life. Now, seven years later, Dugan, 54, lives by herself and has a private law practice in a Huntington Beach high-rise where she specializes in personal injury, family and probate law.

“The worst part of adjusting for me was gearing myself to a more contemplative form of life,” Dugan said. “It took quite awhile to accept the fact that I was going to live my life in a different way, that my life wasn’t going to be measured by the money I earned.”

While a nun, Dugan worked in parishes, jails and nursing homes in Los Angeles and Orange counties. She also worked for the Christian Service Agency, training people to do parish work and later started the Community Law Center in Santa Ana, a legal service for the poor.

Although Dugan gradually adjusted to religious life, she began to question whether it was time to move on after she moved out of St. Hedwig’s Convent in Los Alamitos to care for her ailing father in Huntington Beach.

“There are as many reasons why people have left as there are people who have left,” Dugan said. “But in some situations, and mine was one of them, we wanted things to change in the church to allow for more independent decision making. I would guess that was one of the paramount reasons people left.”

Dugan said her order was very supportive of her decision, and she still sees some of the sisters on a regular basis.

“Some of my dearest friends are in that order. I have deep regard for them and love for them,” she said. “The people I know are so dedicated to what they do. What they do is an invaluable gift and it can’t be purchased at any price, and no amount of salary could compensate them for what they do.”

Once she left the convent, she had to readjust to a new life again.

“When I was not living there, I missed it,” she said. “I missed the presence of the others. And I really knew what they meant by the support of the community.”