A new Catholic medical school dedicated to training pro-life doctors is being planned in Kansas.
Aleteia reports Dr. George Mychaskiw II, one of the project leaders, said he hopes the school will help rebuild a culture of life in America, one that respects every human life, born and unborn.
“Physicians have brought us to this culture of death, and it’s time for us to say no and take the culture back,” the Louisiana doctor said.
Mychaskiw, who has helped establish several medical schools, is working with Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and Catholic Healthcare International on the project. On Sept. 8, they signed an agreement to create the new Saint Padre Pio Institute for the Relief of Suffering and School of Osteopathic Medicine on the Benedictine College campus, according to the report.
“I’ve always felt there’s a need for a faithful Catholic medical school,” he said. “I thought there should be a medical school that really embraces the fundamental principles of the Catholic bioethics that stands for life, that stands for the disabled, that stands for men and women as God created them.”
He told the Catholic News Agency that the school has not been accredited or approved yet, and cannot accept students or faculty until that happens. They are in the process of fundraising as well as planning, but they hope to open in 2026.
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The estimated cost, $120 million, includes the medical school, a hospital, a home for people with brain injuries, and research “in subjects such as ethical development of stem cells, ethical development of pharmaceuticals, diagnosis and management of patients in minimally conscious states, and resuscitation of brain injuries,” according to Aleteia.
Mychaskiw said they eventually would like to see 150 doctors graduate from the school every year, creating a “multiplier effect” that spreads life-affirming medical care throughout the country.
Here’s more from the report:
He said that Franciscan Alliance in Indiana and Illinois “will probably be one of our primary clinical training sites because they are a faithful Catholic healthcare system and they also have a preexisting relationship with Catholic Healthcare International.” …
“As part of the medical school accreditation process we are tasked to create residency training programs,” he said. “So we are planning on creating faithful Catholic residency training programs in fields like ob-gyn, pediatrics, psychiatry, family medicine. Additionally, while we’re still working out the curriculum, we know there will be a lot of Catholic bioethics and some theology in the curriculum, so students will better understand the Catholic perspective on these issues.”
Benedictine College president Stephen Minnis said the program will train doctors to understand and address patients’ spiritual well-being as well as their physical health.
“It is vital to train future doctors at a place like Benedictine College that understands the essential role of faith and morality in the sciences,” he said in a statement. “The campus culture of community, faith, and scholarship that we have worked so hard to create will be the perfect home for the proposed Padre Pio medical school at Benedictine College.”
Students for Life of America recently named Benedictine College one of the top pro-life colleges in the United States.
