I am disappointed with the recent comments that distort my Catholic faith in public view as the evil religion in New Mexico.

It appears that outside special-interest groups claiming titleship to represent our community (i.e., ACLU, etc.) regarding this hospital merger have assumed the moral right and licensure to determine what our decency and community standards should be. It is clearly evident that these arrogant people don't have the courage to speak the truth, but instead are hiding behind the First Amendment cloak.

For some foreigners who want to represent Northern New Mexico on this merger issue, it appears the word "Catholic" presents the window of opportunity to generalize, lump all, trample and smear the entire faith at will. I say it is sacrilegious to disrespect any religion in New Mexico. Stop the Catholic bashing — Ya basta!

José L. Villegas, Sr.
Santa Fe

Get it in writing
Compassion & Choices, an organization that advocates for personal choice at the end of life, is concerned that the proposed merger of St. Vincent Regional Medical Center with the Christus Health System could alienate large segments of our community.

Santa Fe is a multicultural, pluralistic community, encompassing an amazing array of belief systems. We coexist peacefully with respect for each other.

We call upon St. Vincent to respect this immense diversity by structuring the pending merger with Christus in a way that guarantees St. Vincent will continue to provide the same health care services it currently provides for the entire community. Based on failed verbal assurances in the past following similar hospital mergers, we believe the guarantee to continue providing a full array of health care services should be made in writing and contained within the merger documents.

Sarah Cook
Compassion & Choices
Santa Fe


As a resident, I would like to bring to light the urgent need to examine the proposed merger involving St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and Christus Healthcare. I have been a registered nurse for 25 years and have seen the Vatican's influence on patients' ability to make competent health care decisions. Policies must be written and available for review by the community.

Flo Vinnick, RN
Santa Fe


The American Association of University Women has long supported and worked for reproductive choice for women.

While the organization has no position as to the merger between St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and Christus Healthcare, we are very concerned that this association would seriously impact women's rights to make their own reproductive decisions. It is our position that all women should continue to have access to legal reproductive services that are currently available in our community.

For this reason, we urge St. Vincent to ensure that women's reproductive rights are explicitly set forth in any contract it may enter into with Christus, and that the language of any contract prevent any abrogation of these rights in the future.

Nancy L. Scheer
president AAUW-NM
Santa Fe

Duty to public
The Feb. 16 fluff piece Bob Quick wrote, "Thornburg: back in the game," should be an embarrassment to him and your newspaper. It was obvious that you did no other research than to interview the principals at Thornburg. If you had done just a little bit of independent digging, you would have discovered that Thornburg was still in dire straits, and its early March stock drop would not have been a surprise to anyone.

I am hopeful that no one invested hard-earned dollars in this company as a result of your biased story. If they did, they lost more than 75 percent of their money. You should keep this fact in mind when you are reporting on a company which trades public shares. It's your job to report all sides of a position. Shame on your reporter, and shame on your editors!

Pete Hodge
Santa Fe