tepeyac center

Tepeyac’s Nationwide Search Continues for Doctors Who Respect Life

By Henrietta Gomes
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 4/19/07) tepeyac

In a pluralistic society dictated by moral relativism, contributed by the rampant distribution of birth control pills and the practice of tubal ligations and abortions becoming the norm, it is becoming difficult for medical doctors to hold firm to their morals. However, recognizing the dignity of the human person and treating the body as well as the soul and spirit must be at the forefront of healthcare, according to Dr. John Bruchalski, founder of the Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax. Their mission statement includes treating women with “the best of modern medicine with the healing presence of Jesus Christ.”
Tepeyac — staffed with only three doctors, one nurse practitioner and serving nearly 12,000 women, with 200 on their waiting list — has been searching for over a year for two additional obstetrician/gynecologists.
The potential Tepeyac doctor would not have to be Catholic, explained Bruchalski, but must be in accord with Church teachings on life. “Not all the physicians [at Tepeyac] are Catholic, but they have contemplated our approach and come to the same conclusions,” said Bruchalski. “We need doctors who are open to not leaving their faith at the door when they’re walking into the workplace,” said Bruchalski emphasizing the integration of faith and work. Even if the doctors have never worked for a practice similar to Tepeyac, Bruchalski said, “We can help them.”
He stressed the necessity of taking issues of the soul into account when treating his clients. Patients, he said, “want to be treated like a person. They are saying ‘recognize my dignity.’ They’re begging for it.” Dignity is exactly what he strives to convey to each of his patients through his practice. The waiting list alone shows evidence of the demand and desire for Bruchalski’s method. Tepeyac, which is only advertised through word of mouth, also provides services to the poor and those in crisis pregnancies.
The holistic approach reaches a broader audience than just Catholics and transcends religious beliefs said Bob Laird, the practice administrator at Tepeyac. Emphasizing the universality of the practice, Bruchalski said, Tepeyac, “is Catholic with a small ‘c.’” He noted the Muslim clients appreciate Tepeyac’s respect for life and God’s Providence. The practice, however, is heavily influenced by Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, which “starts with the dignity of the human person,” said Laird.
Regardless of the demand, few doctors are willing to acquiesce with the method, said Laird. He said, 1,100 new obstetrician/gynecologists emerge each year from medical schools, but less than 1 percent are willing to take this approach.
According to Laird and Bruchalski, the lack of courage to practice medicine by first honoring the dignity of the human person and respecting all life can be attributed to various factors including the current state of Catholic hospitals and medical schools.
Those institutions blithely indifferent to their Catholic identity are affecting the production or lack thereof of practicing Catholic doctors who follow the teachings of the Church.
“Catholic hospitals are basically Catholic in name only. Many perform second trimester inductions, which are essentially abortions,” explained Laird. Many Catholic hospitals offer tubal ligation procedures and many have medical buildings adjacent to them which provide contraceptives, he said. “Many moms have complained that [elsewhere even “Catholic” hospitals] they get a lecture about contraception after their second or third delivery,” Bruchalski added.
Many Catholic medical schools are shaping the minds of future doctors without taking into account the Church’s teachings. Procedures that destroy or harm life are seen as the norm, said Laird.
Regardless of secular culture, “The Church is saying be countercultural,” said Bruchalski. “We don’t have the right to disrupt natural functions as ovulation. It’s going against the good of the person,” he said. About not dispensing birth control, he said, “Birth control is wrong because it hurts you as a person.” Many pro-life speakers have noted that birth control debases the dignity of women and treats fertility like a disease.
According to Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae:”
“We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children. Equally to be condemned, as the Magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary. Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation — whether as an end or as a means” (HV, 14-16).
Laird and Bruchalski believe that there are no more than 50 gynecologists in the United States who are willing to practice with the same approach of Tepeyac. They have searched nationwide at various Catholic medical schools and have found very few students who are willing to practice medicine while taking their faith into account.
Although it may not be an easy decision, said Bruchalski, it is essential. “Where do we go to find truth? It’s always found on the road less traveled. Truth is never easy,” he said.
Dr. Marie Anderson found that truth when she joined Bruchalski at the establishment of Tepeyac in 1994. “I see miracles each and everyday,” said Anderson. “I can’t imagine practicing any other way. I thought I was helping women, but this is just a whole different plane. It’s the whole woman,” said Anderson, noting that by helping their clients, “We’re helped as well.”
One of Tepeyac’s clients, Melissa Pohlmeier, recounted her days visiting a “Catholic” gynecologist in New Jersey. Pohlmeier felt bombarded with birth control ads from the moment she walked in, she said. They were plastered on the walls in every room, said the mother of three. Pohlmeier desperately wanted a place respectful of Catholic teaching on life. She found it at Tepeyac after she and her husband Keith, an advertising reprentative at the Arlington Catholic HERALD moved to Northern Virginia. “They don’t just provide medical care,” said Pohlmeier, who has been going to Tepeyac for the last 11 years.
Tepeyac was particularly instrumental in bringing healing for Pohlmeier, who suffered miscarriages last September and again in January. Before performing the ultrasound, Bruchalski, whom Pohlmeier affectionately refers to as “Dr. B,” fervently prayed. Bruchalski had been praying for the unborn baby on his own, Pohlmeier said. Although finding out about the miscarriages was difficult, Pohlmeier said, “It was easier being with someone who we knew had been praying for us and for this little soul. We were in a place where they valued life. It wasn’t just a miscarriage,” she said.
Following the couple’s loss Anderson called to check up on Pohlmeier. “She called to see how I was doing … not just how I was doing physically,” Pohlmeier said. “We spoke about God and faith, and you don’t get that anywhere else.”
Praising the work of the doctors and staff at Tepeyac, she said, they “rely on God for guidance while keeping the dignity of mother and child in mind.” Bruchalski, she said, “understands his role as healer and it goes beyond the physical.”
Essentially, Laird said, “We’re trying to take the best that medicine has to offer and because we are created in the image of God we go to our source.”
As the search continues, Bruchalski said, he urges doctors, especially those who are Catholic, to pray for the gift to understand the teachings of the Church. “Priests must challenge the doctors, and patients must challenge their OB-GYN’s,” he added. “Trying to follow truth brings joy, brings peace because God is a merciful God.”

Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com.