Collaborative Governance

In light of our reality, we began exploring options that would provide for someone other than our own sisters to carry out the ministry of leadership. In 2013, we began working with the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (FSM), a community with demographics similar to ours. With the help of both canon and civil lawyers and other consultants, we designed a structure that would provide for spiritual leadership and management of both congregations. The result of this planning was the development of a new not-for-profit corporation called Collaborative Governance. This is not a merger; it is a flexible structure that will allow each of our congregations to maintain its own autonomy and identity with shared services from an Executive Director and Directors of Finance, Heath Care, Communications, and Spiritual Care and Community Life.

June 30, 2025, the last leadership team of CPPS Sisters completed their term. This was the last leadership team to be elected by our sisters. Primarily because of the sisters’ ages, the next leader has been appointed by the Dicastery for Consecrated Life in Rome. Sister Barbara Jean Franklin, ASC, who has been ministering with our Sisters for the past three years, became our leader on July 1, 2025.

This change in leadership does not change the essence of the CPPS community. Sister Barbara Jean, along with our dedicated and competent lay staff, will continue to provide for the well-being of our sisters. Our sisters will continue to be present here in O’Fallon and in other missions where we serve. We will continue our mission to be a sign of Christ’s loving, redeeming presence in our world.