Sister of Social Service Rochelle Mitchell, executive director of Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, has a long history with the ten acres bought by her congregation in 1949 for a novitiate.

Brought up in Ventura during the '40s and '50s when the San Fernando Valley was mostly little ranch houses and orange trees, Sister Mitchell was a novice in the old Spanish-style house on the Encino property.

As a child, she attended Camp Mariastella in the San Gabriel Mountains run by the Sisters of Social Service, a congregation dedicated to social justice ministries founded in Hungary in the early 1920s. Sister of Social Service Frederica Horvath, who came to the U.S. in the late '20s on a fund-raising mission, pioneered women's retreats in the Los Angeles Archdiocese in the sisters' residence on Westchester Place in Los Angeles.

In 1969, the novitiate was relocated to the inner city; the thriving retreat center was moved to Encino and renamed Holy Spirit Retreat Center. Since then, Holy Spirit's retreat offerings have expanded to include divorced and separated Catholics, people with developmental disabilities, and people from other faith traditions, including Jewish retreatants from a nearby temple who needed a place to hold Jewish Marriage Encounter programs.

"Our history with the Jewish people is very deep from our roots in Budapest," said Sister Mitchell. "We helped the Jews during the Nazi invasion. Prominently displayed on a wall at the center is a photo of Blessed Sára Salkaházi, a Sister of Social Service who was shot and killed by Hungarian Nazis in 1944 for saving over 1,000 Jewish people.

"We really welcome the interfaith community out here," emphasized Sister Mitchell. "At this point in time, about 65 percent of what we do is host people from all faith traditions. The other 35 percent is our sponsored programs and events," such as the upcoming Autumn Festival of Art on Oct. 18, 2:30-5:30 p.m., with noted art exhibitors, hands-on art demonstrations, music and a closing thanksgiving ritual.

The festival is "a way to acknowledge the 40 years we've been here and to celebrate how the place has grown," said Sister Mitchell, who became retreat center director in 1994. "We've had a lot of blessings in this place, and I think we have been a blessing to the people who have come here."

She noted 17,000 people visit the center annually for retreats, spiritual creativity workshops, concerts, labyrinth walks or programs on contemplative living and social justice. "Our hope is to introduce people to the retreat center through our on-site events," said Sister Mitchell.

On Oct. 25-26, the Sisters will host screenings of the documentary, "Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters Under European Communism." The film, based on interviews with Eastern-rite and Latin-rite Catholic nuns who kept their faith alive for more than 40 years during Eastern European communist rule, was produced by three nuns who started working on the project after volunteering in Eastern Europe in 1993 after the fall of communism. Many of the nuns were held in "concentration convents" for decades, where they were forced to labor for the state. Others were imprisoned, tortured, exiled or lived underground.

Among the 40 nuns featured in the documentary are five Sisters of Social Service, including Sister Anne Lehner, who escaped Hungarian communists through a barbed wire fence. Sister Lehner will take part in a panel discussion at Holy Spirit's screenings with the sisters who created the film: Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia Margaret Nacke and Mary Savoie and Franciscan Sister Judy Zielinski.

Sister Lehner, 88, who has lived in Buffalo, N.Y., for many years, led a retreat for members of the congregation this year on the social justice charism of the community. "She's a powerful presence," said Sister Mitchell.

Jamey Fitzpatrick, development director for the Sisters, says the stories of the sisters in the film are deeply inspirational and will generate lively discussion at the screenings. "Many of the women entered the community during that time of oppression," said Fitzpatrick. "That's what is so amazing to me --- that young women sought out, found and secretly joined the Sisters of Social Service, taking their final vows in a confessional or someone's apartment with all the drapes drawn."

The documentary will be screened in the chapel as follows: Oct. 25, 1 p.m., general public; Oct. 25, 6 p.m., young adult/general public; and Oct. 26, 10 a.m., women religious. Admission: $10 general, $5 young adults. Information: (818) 285-3358 or carloSSSdevelopment@gmail.com.

For further information on Holy Spirit Retreat Center, visit www.hsrcenter.com. To watch a trailer of the documentary, visit www.interruptedlives.org/.