Kansas (U.S): Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, has signed a collaboration agreement to host a proposed medical school that aims to train medical doctors loyal to Catholic ethics while addressing a national shortage in medical care.

The proposed St. Padre Pio Institute for Victim Relief would be an independent institution located on the School of Osteopathic Medicine, Benedictine campus, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City.

Benedictine College President Stephen D Minis said on September 8 that “It is important to train future doctors at a place like Benedictine College that understands the essential role of faith and ethics in science,”. “The community, faith and culture of the campus scholarship we have worked so hard to build will be the perfect home for the Padre Pio Medical School at Benedictine College.

The proposed school would be licensed, governed, funded and accredited separately from the undergraduate college. Organizers hope to open to students in 2026.

“The mission of the school is to train faithful physicians in the Catholic framework and, through its practice of medicine, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ,” said Dr. George Mychskiev, founding president and CEO of the proposed medical school. The planned school will follow the Apostolic Constitution of 1990 of “Ex Chord Ecclesia,” St. John Paul II, on the mission of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

The Benedictine College Board of Directors approved the launch of the project on 23 August. The college chose 8 September as the day for the signing of the agreement because it is the feast day of the birth of Mary.

The organization draws inspiration from the work of the Capuchin priest Saint Padre Pio, who in 1956 opened a 300-bed hospital in southern Italy called Home for the Relief of Suffering. In 2009, Catholic Healthcare International signed a cooperation agreement with the leadership of the Italian hospital to expand the St. Pio of Peterelcina work, including the establishment of the Catholic Medical School.

Mychaskiw, the founding president of Proposed Medical School, is a pediatrician who has been a practicing physician since 1992. He has helped develop four colleges of medicine. He was the founding dean of the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine at New Mexico State University, which opened in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2013.

The project to start a new medical school comes after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious health inequalities, socioeconomic deprivation and difficulties facing minorities in accessing general health care, said Mychaskiw.

“Many, if not most, of the underrepresented minorities in this country had health consequences very much in proportion to their numbers in the population,” he said. “I work in Louisiana, and most of the critically ill COVID patients I saw were African American.”

According to Mychskiev, the pandemic also raised the prestige of the medical profession. The number of medical school applications has increased significantly. Physicians were valued in society, and the profession was resistant to economic shock from the pandemic.

The college is sponsored by the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey and the Sisters of Mount Scholastica Monastery. As of September 2021, it had over 2,000 undergraduate students.

Mychaskiw said there is a “great prayer foundation” for the proposed medical school. Supporters of the new medical school wanted it to be on the campus of a loyal Catholic university, he explained. They only considered universities recommended by the Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for faithful Catholic education.

“It is intended to be the most faithful Catholic medical school in the world,” Mychskiev said. “We wanted a spiritual home for the medical student where they could be surrounded by a strong Catholic culture.”

While plans are still in development, there is already a vision in place for the training.

“The first two years will be spent at the medical school on the Benedictine campus,” said the founding president. “Then the last two years of training will take place with faithful Catholic physicians and Catholic health care systems across the United States.”

After graduation, the new doctors will take part in the residency program for further training.

“We look forward to creating faithful Catholic residents and programs that will adhere to Catholic bioethical principles,” Mychskiev said.