All Saints Sisters of the Poor Believed to be First U.S. Episcopal Order Created into Catholic Religious Community
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will receive the All Saints Sisters of the Poor, a religious community of nine women once belonging to the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, into the newly-erected Diocesan Priory of the same name. The sisters will profess their perpetual vows at a special 4:30 p.m. Mass on November 1, All Saints Day, at the Basilica in Baltimore.
The 10 sisters belonging to the order previously joined the Catholic faith as individuals, along with their former chaplain Father Warren Tanghe, now a priest for the Archdiocese. However, their community has not been recognized as a religious order of the Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Baltimore. After consultation with the Holy See, Archbishop O’Brien will erect the All Saints Sisters as an official diocesan institute at the November 1 Mass.
The sisters first contacted the Archdiocese in 2008 to investigate the possibility of entering into full communion with the Catholic Church after a seven-year period of discernment. They will continue to reside in their convent in Catonsville, where the Order has been located since 1917. The nuns first arrived in Baltimore in 1872.