Agreement brings new Catholic med school to life

In a day when abortion is seen by some as health care and gender dysphoria as something to celebrate rather than treat, plans to open a Catholic pro-life, pro-family medical school couldn’t be timelier.

The proposed St. Padre Pio Institute for the Relief of Suffering, School of Osteopathic Medicine was announced last year with the signing of a collaborative affiliation agreement between Catholic Healthcare International-USA and Benedictine College in Atchison, KS. Acceptance of students is pending approval from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation and the Kansas Board of Regents. 

Initially, it had been hoped that the new school could admit its first students by the fall of 2026, but that date has been moved to 2027 to provide more time to finalize details, funding, and infrastructure. Plans are to hire a dean by the spring of 2024 and to obtain approval as a candidate for accreditation by September 2025. 

Despite the delay, when the school does open on the Benedictine campus it will give medical students a place to study medicine in the full context of the Catholic faith. This is becoming increasingly important as other medical schools have succumbed to cultural and societal pressures by teaching practices that conflict with Church teaching. Among these are at least two Catholic schools that are now offering instruction in so-called “gender-affirming care.” 

Seminary for Healing

Jere Palazzolo, president of Catholic Health International-USA, said CHI’s vision is to make the St. Padre Pio Institute the most Catholic medical school in the world. “It’s a pretty bold claim, but we can say that because we are doing something no one else is doing,” Palazzolo said. “Not only will these students receive the education to become licensed physicians, but we are also requiring them to get a master’s-level education in Catholic bioethics and medical theology.” 

Palazzolo said this formation process is a critical element of the new school. “We consider this essentially a seminary for the healing ministers of the Church,” he noted.

George Mychaskiw is an osteopathic physician and founding president of the proposed school. “Obviously, these will be students who will become thought leaders in pro-life, pro-family and pro-Catholic philosophy,” Mychaskiw said. “They’ll be graduated armored with Catholic truth about life from conception to natural death, gender as created by God, and not marching to this pop pseudo-science drum about gender and abortion.” 

He said the school also hopes to develop faithful Catholic residencies, especially in areas touched by Catholic ethical concerns — including pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, and family medicine.

Mychaskiw became involved with the project two years ago after reading about plans for the school and contacting CHI. He offered to share a model he has used to help develop several other osteopathic medical schools, including the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, the first medical school in that state. Osteopathic medicine uses the same treatment methods as traditional medicine but also applies a philosophy that emphasizes the patient as body, mind, and spirit. 

As the St. Padre Pio project has progressed, “We are more than ever motivated by the Holy Spirit to get this accomplished,” Mychaskiw affirmed. “If you look at the disservice that American medicine is doing to people and the assault on faith communities and the blood lust for murder of the unborn, the elderly, the infirm, the inconvenient people . . . this will show people that it’s OK to stand for the life of every individual created by God.” 

Cultural shift

Stephen Minnis, president of Benedictine College, said the proposed medical school fits well with the college’s vision of transforming culture through its mission. 

“When CHI came to us in 2022 and laid out this plan, we thought it was almost as if we had written the script ourselves,” said Minnis, a charter member of Legatus’ Kansas City Chapter. “Talk about the ability to transform the culture, especially through health care. Creating a medical school that will train Catholic doctors committed to the Church’s teaching is going to transform health care and the culture as much as anything. It’s right within our mission, so we’re very excited about it.” 

Palazzolo said in looking for a place to locate the proposed medical school, “It was important for us to be on the campus of an absolutely faithful Catholic college.” For that reason, only colleges listed in The Newman Guide published by the Cardinal Newman Society were considered. Benedictine ultimately was chosen, he said, because the college’s vision for changing the culture in the U.S. was so similar to that of the proposed medical school. 

Even though the school will be independent of the college, there will be some interface between the two as St. Padre Pio students use such Benedictine services as exercise facilities and dining halls and attend Mass on campus and at the nearby St. Benedict’s Abbey. 

Student interest

Additionally, Benedictine students and those at other colleges listed in The Newman Guide will receive priority acceptance at the medical school. Although the school is not expected to open until this year’s incoming freshman class graduates, some current Benedictine students are considering taking “gap years” after graduation so that they can attend the St. Padre Pio Institute. 

Among them is Kade Kurowski, a junior biology major from Littleton, CO. “I have values that are hard to align with some current medical practices,” Kurowski said. “Going to St. Padre Pio would help me to practice my faith while doing what I believe I’m meant to do in medicine. That’s definitely a huge pro.” 

Minnis said many Benedictine students who would have liked to become doctors have shied away from careers in medicine because they have been anxious about the culture at medical schools around the country. With the opening of the St. Padre Pio Institute, he said, “I think you’re going to find a lot more young Catholic students interested in going to medical school. I’ve had several current students say they weren’t sure they wanted to do this, but now see that God is calling them into medicine.”

Indeed, Haley Cahill of Wichita, KS, a junior at Benedictine who also is considering applying to the institute, said she has two friends who were initially going to abandon plans to study medicine, but changed their minds after learning about the proposed medical school. 

“I think it’s very difficult to find a school that prioritizes the role of faith in medicine and prepares doctors for the world today,” Cahill said, “so the chance to attend a medical school so grounded in faith and with a goal of transforming the culture would be a great opportunity.”

Cappuccino and the Capuchin: It started with a cup of coffee

Jere Palazzolo is not someone who typically has mystical experiences, especially in coffeehouses.

But more than two decades ago, while reading a quote from a doctor whom St. Padre Pio had chosen to build a Home for the Relief of Suffering in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Palazzolo said in his mind’s eye he saw the Capuchin saint and felt a hand on his arm. He then heard the words, “It is time.” 

The quote Palazzolo was perusing as he sat in a coffeehouse was from Dr. Guglielmo Sanguinetti, who said that the hospital in Italy, known as Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, should be the first link in a great chain. “It should be the model for many other innumerable Casas with the same name and above all the same spirit,” Sanguinetti had said, “which must bring love to all of humanity.” 

After discerning his experience with the help of a spiritual director, Palazzolo went on to found Catholic Health Care International as a paradigm of Christian health-care delivery based on the work of St. Padre Pio. He later forged a collaboration agreement between CHI and the hospital established by St. Padre Pio to replicate it in the U.S. and around the world. Included in CHI’s vision is an authentically Catholic medical school, which is now taking shape in the St. Padre Pio Institute to be located at Benedictine College in Kansas. 

“I have been a hospital administrator more than 40 years, and I’ve seen the secularization of Catholic health care,” Palazzolo said. “One of the ways to counter it is the formation of Catholic physicians.” 

Before his experience in the coffeehouse, Palazzolo had become disillusioned with the state of Catholic health care. However, when he learned about St. Padre Pio’s vision for treating those who suffer, he thought, “Maybe this is the model that can bring us back to our roots.”

As plans for the St. Padre Pio Institute have advanced, Palazzolo said he has continually seen the saint’s hand at work. 

“He sent us George [Mychaskiw], he sent us Steve Minnis from Benedictine,” he explained. “All we can do is say, ‘God, how great thou art’ and be thankful for the opportunity to go along for the ride and see this come to fruition.”