Founder of breakaway Immaculate Heart Community dead at 95

October 17, 2011

The founder of the Immaculate Heart Community, a women's religious order that formally broke away from Rome in the 1960s, has died at the age of 95.

Anita Caspary, whose public disputes with Cardinal James McIntyre led to the eventual exodus of more than 300 members of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died on October 5 in Los Angeles. The struggle between the archdiocese and the fractious religious order, culminating in a formal break, was one of the memorable events in the turmoil that shook American Catholicism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• “Climate of renewal” (California Catholic Daily)
• Anita Caspary dies at 95; 'rebel nun' founded Immaculate Heart Community (Los Angeles Times)