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An organization's foundation is based on its mission, vision, and values. The recent announcement that Fairview Health Services is scaling back its spiritual health services team tells me more than I hoped to know about Fairview's crumbling foundation ("Chaplain corps takes big hit at Fairview Health Services," Nov. 10).

For an organization that was founded on religious principles, to reduce the healing part of their mission is unconscionable. And to do it based upon the obvious new mission of "business savvy" rather than healing and caring is another step in Fairview's cultural demise that began many years ago when it outsourced its revenue cycle.

Hospital chaplaincy is very different than that of a church-based clergy.

Who is going to be available at a moment's notice to comfort the scared, anxious mother of a critically ill child? Who has had the experience of attending to the worries and fright of a transplant candidate who has been waiting for months for a chance at life? Who is going to help the overworked and stressed staff (nurses, doctors and others) who have just lost a patient who they have cared for and have become close to? Who is going to sit with an anxious and worried family who do not understand what is happening to their beloved?

Maybe it will be the Fairview leadership who has made financial success their mission, vision and value.

The writer is a retired physician.

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At Fairview, 13 chaplains and two spiritual care support staff had their jobs "eliminated." I am one of them ("Fairview plans to eliminate 250 jobs," Nov. 3).

Like many hospitals across the country, Fairview is struggling financially and needs to make cuts. On Nov. 2, Fairview's cutting strategy turned into a hatchet job on the spiritual health department. It was a kind of spiritual violence to not only the department but to the diverse community of patients, family and staff we serve.

Our two eliminated Muslim chaplains will no longer serve the large Muslim and Somali population of hospital staff and patients. These are issues of social justice, health equity and serving the neighborhood in which you are located, which Fairview has stated it values. I understand having to balance the financial books. However, this was done without thought or care.

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The article in Friday's Star Tribune about Fairview laying off chaplains has me thinking about all the ways chaplains assisted me in my practice of medicine, healing and comfort. Physical health does not exist alone. Spiritual health is just as important and our chaplains saw to that need. Whether praying with the patient and family before a major surgery or helping after a death, I counted on the Methodist Hospital chaplain service to be partners in healing.

I called the in-house chaplains at all hours to help comfort the family of a recently deceased patient and answer questions about how to handle funeral home arrangements, memorial services and to pray with the family at a time of immense sadness. Medical school did not provide such training! My chaplain colleagues were true partners in the hours after my work transitioned into ministering to the needs of the living. I'd be called to another emergency, but the chaplain was able to be present with the spouse (often all alone). No words can describe the importance of this human presence.

Although the birth of a baby is mostly joyous, there were other times. Sadly, babies do not always live. When asked, some parents gratefully embraced the offer of baptism. A chaplain would baptize the baby with sterile water in a cap from the bottle, an incredibly holy experience.

It strikes me as sad that Fairview has decided that community pastors and faith leaders can fill the void of dedicated hospital chaplains. In some cases, yes. But in the moments that unexpectedly arise, I doubt it.

The writer is a retired physician.

A recent letter writer correctly stated that he "can only speak from the Catholic perspective," but he dragged the other Abrahamic religions into his explanation of the all-male priesthood when he said "those [criticized] ancient religions are probably Judaism, Catholicism and Islam" ("All-male priesthood is not changing," Readers Write, Nov. 5). Leave Judaism out of your guess. As early as 1993, 4% of Jewish rabbis were women among 3,550 U.S. rabbis. The senior rabbi of my own synagogue, Shir Tikvah, here in Minneapolis is a woman, as is the senior rabbi at Temple Israel, just for two close examples.

Elaine Frankowski, Minneapolis

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While it may be true that the all-male priesthood is set in stone, it is not true that the biblical record supports male leadership exclusively. Read about a female disciple in Acts 9:36: "a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas." And check out Acts 18:26 to learn of Priscilla, clearly in a leadership role along with her husband: "Priscilla and Aquila … expounded to him the way of God more accurately." And this in a patriarchal society — remarkable! There is also evidence of women serving as deacons and bishops in the early church. So, choose your priests as you wish, but be careful about supporting your decision using the Bible or church history.

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I found the letter "All-male priesthood is not changing" to be an honest assessment of the historical male-dominated religions. In fact, it never ceases to amaze me why so many women, and those who are not heterosexual, continue to think they can change these out-of-date male-dominated religions. The writer, a Catholic, writes primarily about the religion he is most familiar with. The letter states the Catholic religion is a male-dominated power structure and that it is backed up by historical doctrine. He concludes that the Catholic Church cannot change because it is biblically unable to let women into the higher ranks of priesthood.

I ask, why not just leave religion by the wayside and move into social structures that allow for broad and open governance and participation?

Steve Petersen, Shoreview

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