Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School of Coraopolis is celebrating National Catholic Sisters Week this week to express gratitude towards religious women within the Catholic community. 

According to Catholic Sisters Week, this year marks the ninth annual celebration, where Catholic congregations dedicate a week to highlighting the important work conducted by Sisters around the world every day, such as teaching, caring for the poor, healing the sick, empowering women and promoting peace, all while encouraging young women to consider a vocation as a Sister.

"Catholic Sisters Week kicks off today!" OLSH said in a tweet on Tuesday. "We're so grateful for the women religious who promote peace throughout the world. Thank you especially to the Felician Sisters within the OLSH community!"

Current numbers show that there are just over 44,100 women religious, consisting of nuns and sisters, within the United States, and approximately 100 women each year choose to profess their final vows and devote themselves to God, according to the Lily. While numbers have been on the decline since the 1960s, Catholic Sisters Week serves to celebrate the religious women who dedicate themselves and their work each year. 

Catholic Sisters Week began in 2015 as a part of National Women’s History Month and is made possible each year through associates, donors, benefactors, and friends and family members that wish to bring light and love into the community. 

 "Students live out the Felician Core Values by completing service independently and through school-wide projects like food drives for Our Lady's Pantry (an on-campus emergency food bank), the Christmas Giving Tree, and the Empty Bowls hunger awareness event," OLSH High School said, according to their website. 

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) is a Catholic high school in Coraopolis, which was founded in 1932 as a ministry of the Felician Sisters.