NORTHAMPTON — Chaplains of all faiths at Veterans Affairs facilities Massachusetts were told this week not to mention VA nurses at all, let alone the name Alex Pretti, at worship or gatherings.
Clergy also were told not to offer counseling or support to Veterans Affairs nurses, all according to emails obtained by The Republican.
That would include chaplains at the Edward P. Boland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Leeds section of Northampton.
Veterans Affairs spokespeople Friday said the prohibition is not national policy.
“At this present time, we were advised by leadership to not move forward with any offerings to staff. When they give further guidance, we will update chaplains as we move forward. This is for all chaplain staff. Thank you,” read an email addressed to “all chaplains,” with a subject line of “Staff Support.”
Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a VA in Minnesota was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.
The email, dated Jan. 29, is from Kerrie Godsoe, a program support assistant for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Massachusetts.
Reached by phone Friday, Godsoe said that directive was only until the VA receives further guidance. But she declined to say if there were new instructions and said she couldn’t talk further.
U.S Department of Veterans Affairs spokespeople responded Friday in an email.
“Any internal correspondence or comments you have that may appear to support such false claims do not reflect VA policy,” wrote Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the VA.
When asked what that policy is, Kasperowicz wrote: “All VA employees, including chaplains, are welcome to memorialize Alex Pretti in their own way as long as they are respectful, and it does not interfere with their work duties.”
On Thursday, a retired VA chaplain spoke at a memorial vigil for Pretti, organized by the state nurses’ union and hosted outside the facility in Leeds.
Another chaplain recounted the VA’s message and its effects in the anonymous email obtained by The Republican; the clergyperson feared losing the ability to minister at all at the VA.
Clergy were ordered to cease and desist in offering Pretti-related support and counsel to VA nurses. The chaplain was told he can only offer Mass.
The anonymous chaplain relayed that a supervisor said Pretti’s death was political.
“An act against the current administration. That individual’s interpretation, I’m sure and not an official edict,” the email said.
The clergyperson said chaplains were served with copies of the Hatch Act, which outlaws partisan activity by government employees.
The chaplain wrote of a desire to tell the VA supervisor that the Vatican, and Pope Leo XIV, have a different directive.
“His boss, and my ultimate boss does, too,” the email reads.
Chaplains are Veterans Affairs employees.
Spokespeople for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield did not return calls and emails.
The Washington Post reported this week that VA employees nationwide are frustrated they have not received any agencywide acknowledgment of Petti’s killing.
“Staff were also initially told not to leave messages of support for Pretti in some of the center’s public spaces,” employees said, according to The Post.
The Post also said this controversy comes at a low point for morale at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, following staff and budget cuts. Those cuts also have been felt locally, with veterans complaining of disappearing doctors.
The chaplains are making their case with the help of Springfield political consultant Anthony L. Cignoli, president of A.L. Cignoli Co.
“Several friends of different faiths who do this special work for the VA’s patients and the nurses and staff contacted me for advice on how they could contact members of the U.S. House of Representatives to let them know they were not to minister or give intentions during services with any mention of Pretti,” Cignoli said. “They were told that this was coming from ‘on high,’ either the top of the VA or from Washington itself. I understood that to mean the administration.”
