Sisters to leave Dallas hospital that they founded in 1896

Published: 2004-04-14

DALLAS (CNS) -- After more than a century of service, the Daughters of Charity are withdrawing from St. Paul University Hospital, which they founded in 1896. Though dozens of members of the order once staffed the Dallas hospital, only eight sisters -- with an average age of 75 -- remain. They will depart in May. Sister Patricia Connolly, provincial councilor for the order's St. Louis-based province, said the decision to end the order's 108-year association with the hospital was a matter of dwindling numbers of sisters. "It's sad that our hospital ministry is declining, but it opens up new areas," she told the Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Dallas Diocese. The Daughters of Charity will continue to serve in Dallas at the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe, the diocesan Office of Mission Awareness, Peace and Justice, and several other parishes, schools and social service ministries. The order has gradually diminished its role in the hospital's operations since the mid-1990s. Since 2000 it has been owned by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

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