Dr. Anita Marie Caspary was an American nun and onetime mother superior who led the largest single exodus of nuns from the Roman Catholic Church 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, Caspary became increasingly infused with the spirit and reforms of the Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...

, which were mostly opposed by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, James Cardinal McIntyre

James Cardinal McIntyre

James Francis Aloysius McIntyre was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1948 to 1970, and was created a cardinal in 1953.-Early life:...

. 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. 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".

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

Graduate Theological Union

The Graduate Theological Union ' is a consortium of nine independent theological schools, and eleven centers and affiliates. Eight of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962. It maintains the Graduate Theological Union Library, one of the most...

 in Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

 and served on the staff of the Peace and Justice Center of Southern California.

Memoir

Caspary taught high school English while studying toward a master’s degree at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. She received her Ph.D. in 1948 from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

. She wrote a 2003 memoir, Witness to Integrity.