(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, informed the public about the college’s plans to create a medical school that would be designed to protect the lives of babies and the moral convictions of the college’s medical students.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Catholic liberal arts college decided to partner with Catholic Healthcare International to create the Saint Padre Pio Institute for the Relief of Suffering, School of Osteopathic Medicine, which will be located on Benedictine’s campus, according to Campus Reform.
Even though the medical school is not going to be a part of the college itself, the committee that is responsible for creating the school wanted to make sure that it will be on an “authentically Catholic college campus.”
“It is important for this proposed independent medical school to be located on an authentically Catholic college campus and Benedictine College is pleased to be a part of this agreement,” BC President Stephen Minnis said in a statement.
One of the very important reasons why the committee decided to build the new medical school on the BC campus is because of how Catholics view abortion, officials said.
The ethical dilemma of abortion was considered very carefully when the mission of the institute was determined, said Dr. George Mychaskiw, a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and chief academic officer at CHI.
“The genocide of 65 million children could not have been accomplished without the ready, willing and able cooperation of physicians,” Mychaskiw said.
“This medical school will stand for the life and dignity of every human being, regardless of age or disability, and will train generations of physicians who will take back the culture of death and revolutionize Catholic health care.”
According to the proposal, medical programs would be required to “provide didactic activities and clinical experience in comprehensive family planning” to receive accreditation.
Mychaskiw also acknowledged in an article for Aleteia that religious medical students face a very unique challenge: to violate one’s moral convictions in the name of health, or not.
“They’re in a very vulnerable position,” Mychaskiw said, “which is why our clinical training network will be in faithful Catholic institutions, and any physician that takes our students in as clerks…has to agree to maintain Catholic bioethical principles in their teaching and…protect them from being forced to participate in procedures or therapies that would violate our principle.”
The school is expected to open in the fall of 2026. It is estimated to cost $120 million.
