| Photo by Jennifer Kalenberg on Unsplash
Part VI of “Fourteen Letters to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV” Series
Dear Holy Father:
This journalist founded a Facebook Group on July 7, 2011. Its name was changed last Friday, June 6, 2025, from DrRizal.com/HMO/Proposal for Sorsogon & the PH to DrRizal/HMO, Knightingale & HNU Proposals. The Vatican and the Order of St. Augustine, Province of Cebu, may assign their staff to read their latest postings.
Dr. Jose P. Rizal became the foremost Filipino national hero when Spanish colonial authorities ordered his execution by a firing squad on December 30, 1896. He was also the country’s first physician to work abroad. In his honor, the Knights of Rizal (KOR) was chartered by the Philippine Congress on June 14, 1951. This charter, formalized through Republic Act No. 646 and approved by President Elpidio Quirino, recognized the KOR as a non-sectarian, non-partisan, civic, patriotic, and cultural organization. It has now chapters in many countries, especially where there are major concentrations of Filipino workers and immigrants.
The Facebook Group’s mission statement has also been modified. It is now intended to serve as a discussion board for ideas about reinventing the hospital industry and the medical profession, particularly nursing courses, in the Philippines and other developing countries. Sorsogon’s and Christian nursing/medical colleges are being offered as pilot sites for transforming the Philippines (PH) into a Mecca of Medicine. It now incorporates the various proposals under “Project Knightingale” to address the coming shortage of 13 million nurses by 2030.
It also championed the revival of the defunct Holy Names University (HNU) in Oakland, California, which Canadian nuns founded. It closed on May 15, 2023, after graduating hundreds of thousands of nurses and other medical professionals for nearly 16 decades. The proponents now appeal to Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican to provide moral leadership to the twin proposals and downstream projects.
More information about “Knightingale” can be found in a featured, pinned article in the aforementioned Facebook Group. There is also another pinned series with this title: “Seventeen Articles on Saving the 155-year-old Holy Names University (HNU), a Catholic Institution, Primarily Offering Nursing and Other Medical Courses.”
The two proposed solutions, if implemented successfully, starting in the Philippines and then worldwide, can not only address the upcoming shortages of nursing and medical professionals but also enhance and expand internationally one of Jesus Christ’s Beatitudes. Yes, the curing of the sick. the lame, deaf, blind, and other afflicted people — irrespective of the color of their skin, creed, political and racial orientation, and financial status, especially in the Third World. The result can be affordable universal healthcare, which will be discussed further in the next episode of this series.
The HNU revival may become a 21st-century educational world’s version of the resurrection of Lazarus.
Thank you, Your Holiness, for your attention and assistance.
Very respectfully yours in Jesus Christ,
Roberto (Bobby) M. Reyes
Journalist and Book Author
