A lay Catholic commune with roots in the Bay Area hippie movement is now the target of multiple child sexual abuse lawsuits, and three sisters raised within the community say a dark undercurrent of violence and control ran beneath its virtuous facade.

“I know what a cult is, and it was definitely a cult,” said Margo, the oldest sister, who left the community when she was 26.

The community’s own writings tell its origin story: A group of hippies living communally in Santa Rosa whose spiritual questing 50 years ago led them to Catholicism, the anti-abortion movement and the creation of Catholics United for Life.

“It wasn’t what most people would consider how you would become Catholic,” Margo said.

Decades-old newsletters printed from the Catholic commune they later formed in Coarsegold,

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