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A medical school that promises to provide an education faithful to the Catholic Church’s bioethical teachings and train doctors to serve those most in need is in the works at a midwestern Catholic college.
Benedictine College is in the early stages of exploring the potential for a new medical school on its campus in Atchison, Kansas.
“We are in the early stages of a proposed new school of medicine that will enshrine Catholic moral teaching on the infinite dignity of the human person as created by God,” President Stephen D. Minnis wrote in USA Today on June 17.
The college said in a statement July 2 that its proposed Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine would prepare physicians to serve in Catholic hospitals and in rural areas where health care providers are scarce.
In 2022, Benedictine signed a Collaborative Affiliation Agreement with Catholic Healthcare International to launch a similar project.
That agreement was “amicably dissolved” last month, college spokesman Steve Johnson said Tuesday, and Benedictine College is “continuing forward in pursuit of its own medical school.”
“The two parties decided to pursue their goals independently and on different timelines," Johnson told Aleteia.
“We are forever grateful to CHI and its president, Jere Palazzolo, for being the inspiration for this project and we wish them success in their efforts,” President Minnis said.
CHI is planning to open a medical school in Michigan.
"Transforming culture"
In June, the Benedictine College Board of Directors voted to continue efforts to explore a proposed medical school. The college has dedicated an initial $4 million investment to the project and has completed substantial due diligence, identified fundraising goals, established a project timeline, and has established a committee to provide ongoing leadership to this project, according to a college press release.
“They are bringing in people with expertise in medical school accreditation, design and construction, doctoral medical curriculum, and medical staffing," Johnson told Aleteia.
“Benedictine College has never been better known than we are right now, and our future has never been brighter,” said Minnis. “So, we thought the time was right to announce our plans nationally.”
Part of the reason Benedictine is "never better known" is because of a controversial speech given there this spring by Kansas City Chief kicker Harrison Butker.
The interest in supporting a medical school comes from the college’s strategic plan, “Transform Culture in America,” which states: “STEM education is a particular emphasis of Benedictine College” and calls for the school “to advance the mission through science and health care.”
Culture of death in medicine
Johnson said the need for a medical school comes from "both our strategic plan and from the witness of our nursing graduates and alumni who have gone on to medical school. There appears to be a definite culture of death in the medical world and a lack of regard for human life, especially when it comes to the question of abortion. The goal for us would be to help transform that culture by teaching medicine within a Catholic view of bioethics.”
Minnis said he was inspired to develop the medical school after a discussion with Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, when he visited campus.
Bishop Conley “told me that since Jesus Christ was a teacher and healer, he had decided to dedicate his ministry to education and health care,” said Minnis. “Those words really struck me. Benedictine College’s goal in such an effort will be to follow the example of Jesus by teaching students how to heal with 100% fidelity to Catholic bioethics, and a total commitment to serve those in most need. We are all in.”
