Beaver Falls, USA - The Felician Sisters in the United States and Canada are setting up a new headquarters in western Pennsylvania.
The Roman Catholic sisters have organized a new province in North America that includes about 850 women from Moon Township, just west of Pittsburgh; and others in Rio Rancho, N.M.; Livonia, Mich.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Chicago; Lodi, N.J.: Enfield, Conn.; and Mississauga, Ontario.
The women's religious order had said the merger was needed to deal with its diminishing ranks and aging membership.
Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik plans a Mass Nov. 21 to celebrate the reorganization, which will bring the sisters under the authority of a single province in North Sewickley Township in Beaver County, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The Felician Sisters were founded nearly 154 years ago.