Encountering Christ the Healer in MyCatholicDoctor

While the need for a more faithful, more far-reaching, and more sustainable Catholic healthcare model has long been acknowledged, especially in circumstances in which the deficiencies of secular healthcare, especially with respect to life and end-of-life issues, daily worsen, it is only since the emergence of MyCatholicDoctor, an innovative 501 c 3, co-founded by Dr. Kathleen Berchelmann and her husband Greg in 2018, that this pressing need is finally being met in a way that is at once profoundly faithful and eminently self-sustaining.

On its website, MyCatholicDoctor states its mission with elegant cogency: the healthcare apostolate has been founded to “answer the call of Jesus Christ in Luke 10:9, when He said, ‘Cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” In elaborating on this opening statement, Dr. Berchelmann shows how admirably she has thought through what it is she wishes her answer to our healthcare woes to accomplish. “The universal human experience of illness,” she says,

is a powerful time to recognize that 1) suffering is redemptive and an opportunity to grow in holiness, and 2) healing is a work of God, for which we can be grateful. Through illness and healing the Kingdom of God comes near to us. As healthcare professionals answering the call of Jesus Christ in Luke 10:9, our job is to 1) provide state-of-the-art, effective, ethical medical care and 2) accompany patients in their suffering and healing, so that they recognize that in this time of sickness and healing, the Kingdom of God has come near to them.

It follows from these deep convictions that “In everything” the apostolate does, they “strive to fulfill the call of Jesus in Luke 10:9, treating each patient as if caring for Christ Himself, in order to bring the kingdom of God into the world by bearing witness to the Gospel.” More specifically, they “enable patients to connect directly with Catholic doctors” and they “enable faithful clinicians to practice independently and with the full voice of their faith.” They “believe that the only third party in the doctor-patient relationship should be the Holy Spirit.” Their model also “empowers clinicians to answer the dual call of Jesus Christ in Luke 10:9, a task which has become prohibitively difficult through most secular healthcare employers.” In effect, their “hospital is virtual, accessible across the country, and integrated within the mainstream healthcare industry.”

Accessible Catholic healthcare

As their mission statement sets out, at the heart of the reach and sustainability of Dr. Berchelmann’s model is the fact that “MyCatholicDoctor makes Catholic healthcare accessible throughout the United States by taking advantage of telehealth, a referral network of faithful healthcare professionals, and a unique financial model which aims to accommodate different healthcare payment methods.”

In other words, it is a model that does not rely on unsustainably costly bricks-and-mortar medical offices. At the same time, just like a physical hospital system, MyCatholicDoctor consists of various organizations all collaborating together to achieve their shared mission: the MyCatholicDoctor Foundation, Inc., a 501 c 3 not-for-profit organization and multiple provider groups incorporated in various states. This corporate structure allows for necessary contracting with health insurance companies throughout the United States. In addition to these organizations, Dr. Berchelmann has chosen superb patrons for her apostolate—Venerable Jerome Lejeune, Saint Gianna Molla and Venerable Catherine McAuley, all of whose dedication to true Catholic healthcare guides and inspires the practitioners of MyCatholicDoctor.

In creating her own virtual hospital, Dr. Berchelmann is following in the footsteps of America’s Catholic medical pioneers. As the historian Peter J. Levin points out in his journal article, “Bold Vision: Catholic Sisters and the Creation of American Hospitals” (Community Health, 2011), “In the nineteenth century, Catholic sisters went all across the country establishing schools and hospitals. They were motivated to care for the sick, establish charitable institutions and spread their religious beliefs. Their impact on the development of the American health system was enormous. …Their historical record as founders, builders, financiers and managers of hospitals is unmatched by any other group between 1850 and 1950.” Dr. Berchelmann is both a legatee and renovator of this bold tradition.

Authentic Catholic healthcare

The architect of the MyCatholicDoctor model is a true dynamo, a medical professional of profound faith, unthwartable resolve, and the most cutting-edge entrepreneurial zest. Dr. Kathleen

Berchelmann is a pediatrician, a wife and a mother of seven children. She sees patients from birth through young adulthood. Her practice includes all general pediatric and adolescent medical needs, as well as pediatric mental health.

After graduating from Amherst College in 1998, Dr. Berchelmann completed a fellowship in medical ethics at Weston Jesuit School of Theology. She graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 2003, and completed her internship and residency in pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. For another ten years, in which she had a perfect opportunity to weigh the challenges and opportunities of our current healthcare landscape, she stayed on as clinical faculty at Washington University School of Medicine. She also served as Spokesperson for St. Louis Children’s Hospital and learned health marketing through local and national media.

The colleagues with whom Dr. Berchelmann executes her apostolate’s life-affirming, faith-affirming mission share not only her missionary zeal but her highly impressive credentials. Indeed, their backgrounds nicely corroborate the wisdom of the adage, “Personnel is policy.”

Sr. Marysia Weber, R.S.M., D.O., M.A, a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, MI serves as chair of the Board of Directors of MyCatholicDoctor. Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology she also completed a fellowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry. She trained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

In addition to having a Master’s degree in Theology from Notre Dame, she practiced psychiatry at her religious institute’s multidisciplinary medical clinic, Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Center in Alma, MI, from 1988 to 2014. She became the Director of the Office of Consecrated Life for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis in 2014. She served as facilitator for Rachel’s Vineyard and an executive board member of the Saint Louis Guild Catholic Medical Association and the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology.

She also served as Adjunct Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. Currently, she is vice-president of mission and ministry for Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She continues her work with the Seminary Formation Council forming formators in the art of accompaniment. She has published two books: The Art of Accompaniment: Practical Steps for the Seminary Formator (2nd edition)and Screen Addiction: Why You Can’t Put that Phone Down. As board chair, Sr. Marysia is one of over 170 practitioners committed to serving in the apostolate.

Considering her rock-solid credentials, Sr. Weber’s testimony to the benefits of MyCatholicDoctor is particularly compelling. “Jesus told his disciples to go out to all the world to heal the sick and proclaim the Good News,” she attests.

Hearing from colleagues of how they are not always able to practice medicine with the full voice of their Catholic faith, Dr. Berchelmann contacted me and told me she and her husband felt called to redress this need. Her passion has been inspirational to me. I prayed for her and her husband, Greg, that if this is of the Holy Spirit, it will happen. Well, it was not a long time before MyCatholicDoctor was a beginning reality. Today, MyCatholicDoctor provides authentic Catholic healthcare to remote areas and big cities across the nation.

For Sr. Weber, “MyCatholicDoctor is unique in that it provides excellent evidence-based scientific medicine all from a Catholic perspective but also offers Catholic specialty services that are not found in traditional medical facilities such as male and female fertility care, mental health services, pro-life and end-of-life care. Patients are seen via telehealth but also through home visits and office referrals. Necessary labs, imaging and prescriptions are ordered at a facility of the patient’s choice. We treat all persons, regardless of religion. We also have a unique financial model that aims to accommodate different healthcare payment methods. Also unique to MyCatholicDoctor is a daily Adoration Hour offered for the patients and providers.”

The fruits of the model’s innovative elements continue to augur well for the apostolate’s future. “Thanks to Dr. Berchelmann’s perseverance and commitment,” Sr. Weber relates, “MyCatholicDoctor has been blessed with exponential growth. This blessing now has brought the next phase of development — the need for more funding to onboard more medical practitioners who want to join us and more patients who seek our care and more support staff. One thing we will all experience this side of heaven is sickness and suffering. During such experiences, dignified Catholic health care is crucial. The Holy Spirit has called MyCatholicDoctor into being and wants it to flourish, to proclaim a culture of life—pro-life and pro-eternal life. Now, we need more patients and more donors to join us in supporting our most vital mission!”

Another board member of MyCatholicDoctor, Dr Anne Nolte is a family physician and medical director at the Gianna Center for Women’s Health & Fertility. A certified FertilityCare Medical consultant and FertilityCare instructor, she is the executive director and co-founder of the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility, the first pro-life, faith-based women’s medical center in New York City.

“It’s a game changer”

Dr. Nolte currently provides reproductive health care, primary care, and infertility services for women and teenagers at the Gianna Center medical clinic in New York City. Since opening in 2009, the flagship Gianna Center has been responsible for the birth of more than 1200 babies in couples with infertility or at risk of miscarriage, who were treated using restorative reproductive medicine. Dr. Nolte’s approach to infertility, miscarriage, and pre-term birth prevention is completely in line with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services and is based on the highest quality of medical science.

Dr. Nolte also regularly speaks at national health conferences and seminars to educate health care providers about her eminently faithful, holistic approach to women’s reproductive health care. Her commitment to the MyCatholicDoctor mission is passionate:

Many couples facing infertility or recurrent miscarriage live in communities in which the nearest faithfully Catholic doctor is hours or more away. Facing the heartbreak of these diagnoses, they seek care from conventional fertility clinics, where they are often told that their “only hope” is morally-illicit IVF. The number of Catholic doctors who offer fertility treatment that is completely in line with Catholic teaching is limited. MyCatholicDoctor has come up with the solution to bridge the gap. Through telehealth, a small number of doctors can make this care available nationwide. MyCatholicDoctor has truly created a national Catholic hospital, in which patients can access care in line with their faith, no matter where they live, as long as they have access to the internet. It’s a game changer.

Bishop Joseph L. Coffey, who serves on the Advisory Board of MyCatholicDoctor, can see the appeal of the apostolate’s virtual hospital from the perspective of his rich, varied experience. A graduate of La Salle University with a double major in English and French which included a year of study at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, he worked subsequently as a grade school teacher, a ski instructor in Switzerland, and an executive in the automobile industry in Germany and Belgium.

Responding to the call to the priesthood after over five years in Europe, he attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, from which he graduated with a Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) and a Master of Arts (MA) in Moral Theology. While still in seminary, Father Coffey entered the U.S. Navy Chaplain Candidate Program with the rank of Ensign. He stayed in the Navy Reserve for the next nine years. Following ordination in 1996, he was assigned as an Associate Pastor to St. Katherine of Siena parish in Philadelphia. After five years in parish ministry, he entered full-time active duty as a Navy Chaplain in September 2001, where he remains to this day, a highly decorated, faith-filled, inspiring chaplain.

“I had the great fortune of meeting Dr Kathleen Berchelmann a few years ago at a Family Fest at Catholic Family Land near Steubenville, Ohio,” Bishop Coffey recounts. “She is a wife, mother, devout Catholic and also not only a brilliant physician but a visionary. The co-founder and CEO of MyCatholicDoctor, she and her team are addressing the growing need for telemedicine throughout the country.” In elaborating on the wide appeal of the apostolate, Bishop Coffey demonstrates its investment worthiness.

There are parts of our Country where it is difficult to find a good doctor. We all know many of the devastating effects of the Covid pandemic but God, who does not will evil, but allows it, always brings good from it. For many people, telemedicine has been a real blessing. Dr Berchelmann and her dedicated team of physicians, nurses, and health care professionals can help patients with all kinds of medical needs. One of those needs for women is Natural Family Planning which is also known as Fertility Based Awareness Methods (FBAM). There are no side effects and great health benefits for women. For example, when a woman is charting her monthly cycle, she will learn to know what is normal and what is not. If something is not right, she can talk to her doctor about it. This can help not only Catholic women because it is in line with Catholic teaching but any woman of any faith concerned about her physical health.

The bishop’s experience as Military Chaplain has also convinced him of the need for increased marketing for the apostolate.

As an Auxiliary Bishop for the Military Archdiocese and the Vicar for Veterans Affairs, I can share the great news that military members do not fall under the Affordable Care Act: Tricare HQ has clarified that Tricare will cover the cost of instruction in Fertility-Based Awareness Methods. This is indeed very good news for all women in the military. Dr Berchelmann and her team at MyCatholicDoctor can help people to navigate the intricacies of the billing codes that ensure that insurance companies and Tricare will cover the costs of instruction of these FABMs that are so helpful to all women. Dr Berchelmann and MyCatholicDoctor are truly helping women, men, and children with their medical needs at every stage of life. As a Catholic Bishop, I could not be more thankful to her. Now, we have to get out the message for MyCatholicDoctor not only by word of mouth but with pieces in the media extolling the network’s manifold benefits.

A better way

Dr. Karen Dalton, an internist, is a leading light among MyCatholicDoctor’s national medical providers. Born in Syracuse, New York, Dr. Karen Dalton grew up outside of Buffalo, attended Lafayette College in Easton, PA and the University of Buffalo School of Medicine, where she graduated in 1987. After completing four years of training in Primary Care Internal Medicine in Buffalo, she married and began her journey of discovering her true calling in life.

She converted to the Catholic faith in 1993 when living in Chicago. She felt called to change the core focus of her career in 2011 after moving to Rochester, New York and reading about the Pope (now Saint) Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, NE, from which she received certification in 2013 to become a NaproTechnology Medical Consultant. She then served as the Director of the Gianna Syracuse Center for Women’s Health and Fertility, concomitantly practicing Primary Care Medicine in the inner city of Rochester in a practice affiliated with a pregnancy resource center.

Currently, she continues practicing Primary Care telemedicine, including urgent care issues, general wellness evaluations and NaproTechnology. She is certified by the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals and the American Board of Internal Medicine. She and her husband have 3 grown children.

When I asked Dr. Dalton how she has benefited from joining Dr. Berchelmann’s network as a provider, she was full of genuine thanksgiving.

Having colleagues for whom the concept of inherent human dignity is a given eliminates any question as to motivation in their approach to medical care. I have full confidence that those with whom I collaborate have pure intentions in their approach to medical care, as we have all discerned our own “Call within a call’ to this apostolate, if I may be so bold as to quote St. Teresa of Calcutta. And frankly, we pray: for each other in our struggles, for our patients, for wisdom. The Lord is our guide and we work for Him. Knowing that I have colleagues who think like me and have my back is powerfully motivating and keeps me going when all the silliness the world of secular medicine throws at us makes me want to scream. (This happens daily.). The Catholicity of the network also eliminates any concern over some more controversial aspects of medical care that our non-Catholic Christian brethren may accept such as birth control, IVF, etc.

Dr. Dalton is equally eloquent on what she sees as the benefits to patients of MyCatholicDoctor’s dynamically faithful network. “My Catholic patients appreciate not having to defend their faith to me and know I understand them to the core, spiritually speaking,” she assures me.

Many of my patients are deeply faithful and have been ridiculed for that faith (literally, unabashedly ridiculed by medical professionals) and feel freer to open up to me about those experiences, knowing I value their faith and seek to incorporate it into our plan for their health. I do have non-Catholic patients as well who I sense appreciate my faith-based approach to their care. (I have one Jewish patient with whom I have introduced the concept of redemptive suffering. Praying it goes somewhere… O Mary, conceived without sin, Ora pro nobis…) So many people are completely disillusioned with the current state of medicine and are refreshed that this avenue offers a different, more holistic and hopefully ultimately better way.

The better way of which Dr. Dalton speaks is ineradicably rooted in Christ the Healer. When I spoke with Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, who serves as Chair of the Episcopal Advisory Board of the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance, this was the aspect of the apostolate that he extolled most: its adherence to Christ’s care of the sick.

“Dr. Berchelmann and her team are in perfect harmony with Christ the Healer’s solicitude for the sick,” he remarks. “Their joyous adherence to Christ’s care for the sick blesses, distinguishes and elevates all they do. Their innovative and ‘outside of the box’ approach to medicine goes to the very heart of an apostolic vision for the delivery of Christ-centered health care, a vision well suited for the challenging times in which we live.”

In the General Introduction to The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services we encounter precisely the vision of true Catholic healthcare that Bishop Conley and MyCatholicDoctor prize:

The Church has always sought to embody our Savior’s concern for the sick. The gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry draw special attention to his acts of healing: he cleansed a man with leprosy (Mt 8:1-4; Mk 1:40-42); he gave sight to two people who were blind (Mt 20:29- 34; Mk 10:46-52); he enabled one who was mute to speak (Lk 11:14); he cured a woman who was hemorrhaging (Mt 9:20-22; Mk 5:25-34); and he brought a young girl back to life (Mt 9:18, 23-25; Mk 5:35-42). Indeed, the Gospels are replete with examples of how the Lord cured every kind of ailment and disease (Mt 9:35). In the account of Matthew, Jesus’ mission fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Mt 8:17; cf. Is 53:4). Jesus’ healing mission went further than caring only for physical affliction. He touched people at the deepest level of their existence; he sought their physical, mental, and spiritual healing (Jn 6:35, 11:25-27). He “came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).

The mystery of Christ casts light on every facet of Catholic health care: to see Christian love as the animating principle of health care; to see healing and compassion as a continuation of Christ’s mission; to see suffering as a participation in the redemptive power of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection; and to see death, transformed by the resurrection, as an opportunity for a final act of communion with Christ. …Catholic health care ministry bears witness to the truth that, for those who are in Christ, suffering and death are the birth pangs of the new creation. “God himself will always be with them [as their God]. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away” (Rev 21:3-4). In faithful imitation of Jesus Christ, the Church has served the sick, suffering, and dying in various ways throughout history.

Finally, for Catholic investor and founder of Equinox Partners, Sean Fieler, whose family are grateful patients of MyCatholicDoctor, the investment worthiness of the apostolate is clear:

What Dr. Berchelmann has done is to create a national network of authentic Catholic doctors responsive to the needs of Catholic families, needs which often go unmet by doctors operating in secular hospitals. Since she has done this through a cost-effective telemedicine model, she has put the MyCatholicDoctor network on the road to self-sustainability. Yes, scale is a challenge, as it will be for any innovative new player in any business, but that is precisely why prospective donors should consider giving the apostolate the support it needs for marketing and advertising to help it achieve scale. MyCatholicDoctor has a great story to tell and now is the time that we should be sharing the blessings of that story with prospective patients.

Mr. Feiler also sees an analogy between the sort of authentic approach to Catholic healthcare that Dr. Berchelmann is spearheading and those in the educational sphere working to offer parents and students authentic Catholic education. “Many of our Catholic schools,” he says, “as we all know, may have certain strengths but they are deficient when it comes to what ought to be the demands of their Catholic character.”

He explains further:

Start-up schools designed to rectify that deficiency may not have the scale that larger, more established Catholic schools have but they merit our support nonetheless. They are the future of authentic Catholic education. The same applies to Catholic healthcare. Our bricks-and-mortar Catholic healthcare institutions do lots of great work, but they are not always up to snuff when it comes to what ought to be their faithful Catholic identity. MyCatholicDoctor is poised to change that. Faithful Catholic donors should give this vital, ‘can-do’, eminently investment-worthy apostolate their careful consideration.

Here, collectively, is the case for the innovative approach to healthcare that Dr. Berchelmann and her colleagues are offering to a country yearning for truly Catholic healthcare. As their inspiring testimonials show, they are eager to welcome new patients and new donors to their blessedly growing network.