Outrage! Chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton resigns over ban on word 'God'

Soon after I became a Chaplain, a dear friend of mine was dying in a hospice. The family wanted me to be there for her and for them. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I wanted to be there for her, but the family was in need. I had to force myself to forget that Jen was my friend. My husband's father died in a hospice. I have been aware of how rare the people are working in hospice for a very long time and I know I would never be able to do what they do no matter how deep my own faith is. It takes a very special person to do what they do. To read this, fills me with a sense of outrage! It would be one thing to feel uncomfortable in a staff meeting hearing of God but then why have a prayer during one if the staff is unable to tolerate the use of God? Who do they think they are praying to? To say that the Chaplain cannot refer to God is like saying there is no point in them being there at all, that hope of an afterlife is a waste of time. If a Chaplain cannot acknowledge God then they should hire a clown instead to offer comedy relief instead of delivering God's Grace.
Chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton resigns over ban on word 'God'
Ban on word 'God' at meetings has chilling effect, she says
By Howard Goodman South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 18, 2009
A chaplain at Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton has resigned, she says, over a ban on use of the words "God" or "Lord" in public settings.

Chaplains still speak freely of the Almighty in private sessions with patients or families but, the Rev. Mirta Signorelli said: "I can't do chaplain's work if I can't say 'God' — if I'm scripted."

Hospice CEO Paula Alderson said the ban on religious references applies only to the inspirational messages that chaplains deliver in staff meetings. The hospice remains fully comfortable with ministers, priests and rabbis offering religious counsel to the dying and grieving.

"I was sensitive to the fact that we don't impose religion on our staff, and that it is not appropriate in the context of a staff meeting to use certain phrases or 'God' or 'Holy Father,' because some of our staff don't believe at all," Alderson said.


Signorelli, of Royal Palm Beach, said the hospice policy has a chilling effect that goes beyond the monthly staff meetings. She would have to watch her language, she said, when leading a prayer in the hospice chapel, when meeting patients in the public setting of a nursing home and in weekly patient conferences with doctors, nurses and social workers.

"If you take God away from me," she said, "it's like taking a medical tool away from a nurse."

A devout Christian who acquired a master's degree in theology after a career as a psychologist, running a program for abused and neglected children, Signorelli has been ministering to the dying for 13 years. She worked at the Hospice of Palm Beach County before moving seven years ago to Hospice by the Sea, a community-based nonprofit organization that cares for terminally ill patients in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Signorelli said that she and other chaplains were told Feb. 23 to "cease and desist from using God in prayers."