Tribune Staff Report
South Bend Tribune
The Indiana and Eastern provinces for priests and brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross will merge next year, the congregation announced Tuesday.
The newly merged group will be known as the United States Province of Priests and Brothers.
The merger was approved last summer in Rome during a general chapter meeting of the religious order. At a Dec. 4-5 joint meeting of the two province councils at a Holy Cross retreat center in LaPorte, the groups agreed that the merger should move forward by July 1, 2011.
The ministries of the new province will include four colleges that were founded by the Holy Cross religious order: the University of Notre Dame; the University of Portland (Ore.); King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; and Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. All other Holy Cross ministries also will be integrated, including various parishes, Ave Maria Press at Notre Dame and Andre House, a ministry to the homeless and poor in Phoenix.
The congregation's U.S. Province will include more than 410 priests and brothers, plus 80 current seminarians. The province's administrative offices will be in South Bend, Indiana.
The U.S. Province also will include brothers and priests serving in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
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