Dr. Anita Marie Caspary
was an American nun and onetime mother superior who led the largest
single exodus of nuns in the Catholic Church from canonical (church law)
religious order vows in American history to found a lay women's
organization known as the
Immaculate Heart of Mary Community.
A "cradle Catholic" who took her vows in 1936 as Sister Humiliata in the
Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Caspary became increasingly infused with the spirit and reforms of the
Second Vatican Council, which were mostly opposed by the Archbishop of Los Angeles,
James Cardinal McIntyre.
In December 1969, after a standoff, more than 300 sisters at an
Immaculate Heart community meeting voted to become a non-canonical
community, thereby freeing themselves of Rome's control. Around fifty of
these continued to operate under official Vatican recognition.
[clarification needed]
Approximately 250 sisters ceased teaching in the archdiocese's Catholic
schools. Caspary recalled that establishing a voluntary lay community
"relieved us from threats and difficulties with the church under which
we lived at that time".
[1]
Caspary was president of Immaculate Heart College, which was operated
by her order, from 1958–63. (The school continued to operate after the
schism in 1970, but closed in 1980.) After the break with the church,
she taught at the
Graduate Theological Union in
Berkeley and served on the staff of the Peace and Justice Center of Southern California.
[2]
Memoir
Caspary taught high school English while studying toward a master’s degree at the
University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in 1948 from
Stanford University. She wrote a 2003 memoir,
Witness to Integrity.
Death
Anita Caspary died in
Los Angeles, California on October 5, 2011, aged 95.
[3]
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