Evangelization and the Catholic Identity of Medical Schools

Abstract

John Paul II, in his Apostolic Constitution for Catholic Universities, selected evangelization as one of the distinctive characteristics of Catholic universities. The author argues that evangelization of a kind proper to a medical school is essential to its Catholic identity; that properly construed evangelization can enhance, rather than diminish, the quality of medical education and patient care; and that without being part of the Church's evangelizing mission, Catholic medical schools cannot withstand the powerful currents which now tug them in the direction of secularization.