{"id":12947,"date":"2015-12-21T18:20:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T23:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12947"},"modified":"2015-12-23T23:37:40","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T04:37:40","slug":"gorman-uses-power-of-communication-at-toronto-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/gorman-uses-power-of-communication-at-toronto-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorman uses power of communication at Toronto hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n

As she sat in the pews of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Barb Collins says she saw something special in the man leading the service.<\/p>\n

The Chief Operating Officer of Toronto\u2019s Humber River Regional Hospital was struck by the way Father Joe Gorman attracted people. It\u2019s a skill, she says, that not everybody had, and he had it in spades.<\/p>\n

But Gorman\u2019s time at the helm of Our Lady of Grace (OLG) was cut short earlier this year after Cardinal Thomas Collins asked Gorman to step away from the church for a time citing \u201cfinancial irregularities\u201d and \u201cinvolvement in marriages not sanctioned by the Catholic Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Archdiocese of Toronto, the marriage in question involved Gorman presiding over a ceremony where one of the individuals had been previously married and had not received the required annulment within the Catholic Church \u2013 and in an Anglican chapel.<\/p>\n

The \u201cfinancial irregularities\u201d involved a special collection for a local charity, the Rose of Sharon Services for Young Mothers, which did not follow the guidelines of the Archdiocese.<\/p>\n

After a couple of months of consideration, and considerable prayer, Gorman announced his decision to leave the Priesthood.<\/p>\n

While many parishioners expressed anger over the Archdiocese\u2019s treatment of Gorman, for Ms. Collins, this eventually gave way to a sense of opportunity.<\/p>\n

Gorman now serves at Humber River Regional Health Centre as the Director of Bioethics, Ethics and Spiritual Care.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthcare is all about communication: families communicating with our staff, communicating with our physicians, and I really believe that is a real strength of his,\u201d says Ms. Collins. \u201cHe cares about people, he wants them to be happy, and he communicates beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Collins was on hand at King Richard\u2019s English Pub recently, along with hundreds of OLG parishioners and members of the Aurora and Newmarket communities at large, for a reunion with Gorman and to collect much needed grocery cards, gift cards, and cash for Rose of Sharon and Southlake Regional Health Centre.<\/p>\n

Restaurant owner Tim Brochu, a 10-year parishioner at OLG, had no hesitation in turning over the entire pub to Mr. Gorman for the event.<\/p>\n

It was a way to foster the continued links between Mr. Gorman and the community but, in Mr. Brochu\u2019s view, these links have never been broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was an altar boy at the age of five and there was always this weird connection with the church as far as I had to go and my parents making me go,\u201d said Mr. Brochu. \u201cWhen we moved here from Quebec, we went to church and I helped out Father Tim and everyone else, but I always felt like I had to go to church because of who I was. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Joe came on board, it wasn\u2019t a chore anymore. As an usher, we had to set up chairs outside for people. We had to talk about putting TVs in the lobby and stuff like that. It was so different than I have ever experienced. Joe is still very viable in Town and involved here in Aurora and Newmarket. The turnout of people is just unreal. We are at capacity, the box is beyond full, and we hope it is an annual thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

These were sentiments echoed throughout the bar as the evening progressed.<\/p>\n

In addition to representatives from Humber River, the event also had healthy representation from Southlake Regional Health Centre, Microsoft, and the Rice Group, in addition to Councillor John Abel, former MPP Frank Klees, and former councillor Don Constable. <\/p>\n

Like Mr. Brochu, Mr. Constable\u2019s interest in Our Lady of Grace was also reinvigorated by Mr. Gorman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a way of cutting not only through the red tape, but the bull,\u201d said Mr. Constable. \u201cHe never judges people, he\u2019s caring, and my closest link to Joe is I have a niece who lives in Newmarket and she lives next to Joe\u2019s parents. Seven or eight years ago, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and they wanted to take her leg off. Fortunately, she didn\u2019t lose her leg, she got through the cancer, and Joe is still picking her up on Friday and taking her to her swimming therapy. <\/p>\n

\u201cJoe has no more time to do that than anybody else, but he does it. He even takes Cameron, her little brother, and that is the thing I love about Joe. I didn\u2019t know enough about Fr. Joe the Priest because I have been in the church off and on for years. The last time I had been there, Fr. Don was there, who I liked because he was a no bullshit kind of guy. That\u2019s what I liked about Joe. He is still spiritual, but he had love and compassion and brought people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the Christmas season, there is no greater cause than to ensure people in the community have what many of us take for granted, said Mr. Klees, and social issues are an area Mr. Gorman has shown \u201ctremendous leadership\u201d over the years. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe expresses what many people would like to express but can\u2019t,\u201d said Mr. Klees. \u201cThat is a love of community, a love of people, and he embodies that. I believe his influence in the community is going to continue for many, many years because he has established credibility, he has established the trust, and people are here for two reasons; Joe and the cause he represents tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Mary Rice: \u201cThe priest we have now is a wonderful man, don\u2019t get me wrong, but I think Joe has a place in all of our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As she sat in the pews of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Barb Collins says she saw something special in the man leading the service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-24-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3mP","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 08:38:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}