Catholic Schools Denying Truth When It Comes to Human Sexuality

During my 40 years as a Catholic school educator, with 34 of those as a Catholic school principal, I witnessed a lot of disheartening change.  One change was the growing number of adults in Catholic school communities who were lukewarm or ignorant in their Faith.

The most alarming change, however, is how many of the school faculty, including fellow principals, were not simply lukewarm or ignorant, but were downright heretical.  They obstinately denied many of the truths of Catholic teaching. And this heretical posture is no more evident than when the topic involves human sexuality.

Today, it seems, there are many Catholic schools throughout the country that care more about the world than the Truth. Administrators and teachers don’t speak up about the dangers of homosexuality or the mental illness called transgenderism. And whether due to ignorance, apathy, cowardice, or irreverence, the educators in these faux-Catholic schools refrain from teaching their students biblical truths about sex and marriage and about morality and immortality.

These types of administrators and teachers are indeed true believers – but not in the Lord. Their allegiance is to secular humanism, relativism, and/or immoral sexual ideologies.

In Des Moines and Portland

Even before the recent rise in violence against Christians from so-called trans people, two U.S. bishops spoke up regarding this immoral ideology. Two years ago the bishop in Des Moines, Iowa and the archbishop in Portland, Oregon publicly upheld Church teaching on sexuality.  These clerics know that loving someone means telling them the truth and not encouraging their delusions.

In short, they said that we are created in God’s image, and that He created just two sexes. Sex is not “assigned at birth,” as the lie goes.  God decides on one’s sex at conception.

The bishops called on their flocks to faithfully adhere to the Church’s position on sexuality and to firmly resist the growing scandal of so-called transgenderism. They were seeing this confusion and heresy in some of their Catholic schools, so they each published a document – “Gender Identity Guide and Polices” and “A Catholic Response to Gender Identity Theory”. The documents provided clarity on the Catholic Church’s stance on human sexuality.  They also informed Catholic schools they have a duty to teach these truths.

Unfortunately, these documents appalled and angered a number of educators and parents with children is these dioceses’ Catholic schools.  Some educators resigned and many school parents protested. By resigning and protesting, they were signaling their opposition to the truths of human sexuality.  They were also openly disagreeing with not only with the Church but with Jesus and Scripture.

These parents and educators opposed the guidelines in the documents even though their bishops were simply listing facts and realities. No authentic Catholic should have had trouble endorsing any of the statements in the documents.

The documents explained how believing in so-called gender identity theory is in conflict with our Faith.  They also explained that it is immoral to provide so-called gender affirming care in the form of drugs and mutilation. However, as I am pointing out in this article, many Catholic schools employ inauthentic Catholics.

But this is not just happening in Iowa and Oregon.  Throughout America, there are Catholic school parents, teachers, and principals who are confused.  At best they are ignorant about the Church’s teachings on human sexuality topics.  At worst they are knowledgeable, and are openly defying Church teaching.

In the Seattle Archdiocese

As a principal in a Seattle Archdiocesan school I saw this confusion firsthand.

Three years prior to the Des Moines and Portland bishops coming forward, I feared that progressive sexual beliefs were infiltrating Catholic schools in the Seattle Archdiocese.  I also feared these beliefs harmed children.

I saw the infiltration coming in from the newer generations of parents and teachers.  They were either ignorant of Catholic doctrine or reluctant to say anything against the culture.

Distressingly, I also realized some adults in our school community were “woke.”  By any measure it appeared that they had proudly joined the culture in supporting liberal, anti-Catholic principles regarding sexuality.

It was clear to me that the archdiocese needed to address our schools’ policies and curricula regarding sexuality.  The archdiocese needed to heighten and clarify our policies for both the ignorant and the intransigent, not only in my school but throughout the archdiocese.

As such, I approached the Seattle Archdiocese’s office for Catholic schools in 2019.  I asked if the archdiocese was going to create written guidelines for our schools that clearly defined policies and procedures connected with human sexuality.

Specifically, I noted three growing concerns that needed attention. These were the controversies found in most public school systems, which were now appearing nationwide in many Catholic schools:

• The hiring/supporting of school personnel who are in so-called same-sex marriages;
• Allowing students to use the opposite sex’s restrooms, play on the opposite sex’s sports teams, and/or wear the opposite sex’s uniforms;
• Requiring teachers to address students by their so-called preferred pronouns.

I was frankly shocked when the archdiocese rebuffed me. The office for Catholic schools wanted to leave the development of any policies up to individual schools. They admitted there were numerous Catholic communities in Western Washington who would not want to support, let alone publicly proclaim, the Church’s stance on homosexuality and gender identity.

In hindsight, I should have guessed this would be their answer. After all, this was the archdiocese where some of my fellow principals had their “preferred pronouns” labeled on-screen under their names in virtual meetings. And this was the archdiocese where some of my fellow principals allowed boys to wear girls’ uniform skirts if they “identified” as girls.

This was also the Archdiocese where not just one, but two Catholic high school presidents were forced out of their schools.  Their ‘crime’ was that they tried to stand up for authentic Catholic teaching by not allowing “gay married” teachers.

It became rather obvious it was going to be up to each principal to act alone.  The archdiocese had simply washed its hands of the idea of unity and clarity on established Catholic principles. What’s more, many considered our archbishop as way left of the Des Moines and Portland bishops on social issues and theology.

Standing Firm and Proclaiming the Truth

With the assistance of a committee of Catholic school parents and my school commission (board), in 2019-20 we worked at more clearly and thoroughly expressing our school’s human sexuality-associated policies.  I detailed the sources for our policies and some of the statements in those policies in a 2023 CS article entitled “Beware of Anti-Catholicism Infiltrating Catholic Schools.”

After publishing our school’s updated, faithful commitment to Church teachings on sexuality, we received some pushback.  The pushback came from a small minority of parents and faculty members who rejected hearing the truth. A handful of our school families informed me they would not be reenrolling for the coming school year.

A couple of our teachers also told me they disagreed with the “harshness” of our statements. They did care for our using terms like “homosexuality” instead of “gay” and describing these acts as “disordered.”

Even when I pointed out these terms came directly from the Catechism, they would not budge in their opposition. So, I suggested they might want to find work at a school that was a better fit. In lieu of being terminated, they offered their resignations effective at the end of that school year.

Losing teachers who are popular, effective educators when it comes to teaching math or science may seem like a big blow to a school. But it is actually a fortunate thing if these teachers don’t believe in the school’s mission. It is beneficial to students’ souls to remove negative adult influencers. Students’ souls should be the number one concern of Catholic schools, not students’ test scores.

Where Did Those Policies Go?

I would have loved for my story to have a happy ending.  I wish I could say that my school now promotes strong moral principles … the woke, disobedient people are exposed and leave … and the school’s Catholic identity intensified.  But that is not what transpired.

Less than two years later, at the start of my 34^th year as principal of the school, I was fired. I was forced out in 2021 for refusing to take an archdiocesan-mandated covid “vaccine.” (You can read the specifics about that story here).  Soon thereafter, the authentic Catholic policies I had promulgated disappeared.

In the four years since, my former school has gone through three different principals. Sometime between 2022 and 2025, one of those principals, or someone(s) in the school administration who had access to edit school documents, sneakily removed all of the human sexuality policies I helped create in an effort to block the infiltration of immorality into our school.

The policies that were broadcast and publicly accessible to all in the school community, when I was last in charge in the fall of 2021, were nowhere to be seen when I searched online in the fall of 2025.

I asked some current teachers at the school with whom I have kept in contact about this.  None of them knew these policies had disappeared from the website. They did not recall any faculty discussion, public input, or school commission consultation regarding the school’s decision to remove multiple paragraphs of school policy associated with sexual morals.

They also were not aware of something else different about my former school’s policies.  Sometime in the last four years a new statement was added to the policies: “we do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, color, national or ethnic origin.”

The phrase “sexual orientation” was not in our policies when I was principal. Although public schools love to include this phrase in their policies, a private school – especially a Catholic one – has no requirement to include this.  Either an ignorant or woke member of the administration at my former school purposely added this new statement.

I tell my story to provide an example of how there are lukewarm, spineless, or downright heretical Catholics who continue to infiltrate many Catholic school faculties. We are fortunate to still have some Catholic educators and schools who are faithful Catholics.  They do not waver when it comes to upholding Church doctrine and God’s truths. Sadly, we do not have enough of them.

What Should Parents Do?

Catholics should be able to expect 100 percent of Catholic school faculty and diocesan leadership to uphold Church principles via school policies, curriculum choices, and hiring practices. Catholics should also be able to have confidence that their parish elementary schools and diocesan high schools both outwardly and internally affirm a strong Catholic identity.

Unlike during their grandparents or great-grandparents’ generations, today’s Catholic school parents can no longer assume the following:

• That the school’s principal and teachers hold authentic Catholic beliefs just because crucifixes adorn classroom walls and students attend school Masses;
• That human sexuality principles taught by Catholic school teachers differ from those taught by their secular, public school counterparts;
• That a Catholic school’s policies firmly and shamelessly endorse Church stances against disorders such as homosexuality and so-called gender identity.

Catholic school parents must be vigilant in verifying the school is authentic and not just “public school light.”  If the school is not authentically Catholic, parents have only three choices: confront the administration, find another school, or homeschool. Catholic parents should never settle for enrolling at a faux-Catholic school that is unwilling to share traditional beliefs of how God intended sexuality to be.

Nothing is more paramount than sustaining our children’s souls. A Catholic educator’s huge responsibility is to teach their students God’s commandments and biblical truths, and uphold Church doctrine.

Likewise, a parent’s primary responsibility is to model to their kids what a true follower of Jesus looks and acts like. They must impart the rewards of walking faithfully on the narrow path with their Lord.

As the primary educators of their children, moms and dads have a difficult task today.  We live in an era of anything-goes, unbiblical sexuality and the culture’s endorsement of nonsense phrases like “love is love” and “live one’s truths.“  Parents must be willing to act counter-culturally in how they educate their children regarding the topics of sexual activity, reproduction, masculinity, and femininity.