Academic

Remembering Sister Cathy and her work

Sister Cathy Gorman was in her 20s when she arrived at the wary farm-working community of Apopka. She quickly earned migrants' trust working beside them in the fields.

Sister Cathy Gorman touched the lives of thousands of migrant farmworkers and poor and disenfranchised families in Central Florida.

She died Jan. 5, two months shy of her retirement party, from heart failure. She was 65.

Working with other nuns, she helped launch the Office for Farmworker Ministry. They created a medical clinic, a food co-op, an AIDS outreach program, a low-income housing program and a credit union, where they had youths work as tellers and loan officers to learn about finance. In 2007, Gorman's dream came true. They opened the $1.7 million Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka after years of lobbying and fundraising.

Read the Orlando Sentinel report here.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on January 17, 2010 (boomark / email).