St. Vianney Catholic High School in St. Louis, MO has denied a student the right to opt out of a theology class after parents brought to the administration’s attention the heterodox and heretical social media activities of the Sophomore theology teacher.
This past December, the parents of the student communicated with the school’s principal, Ian Mulligan, cc’ing the school’s president Mike Loyet, through a series of emails to request that their son be allowed to opt out of Meredith Caul’s theology class because of her advancement of homosexuality and women’s ordination both in and out of the classroom.
Throughout the exchange, Mulligan refused to address specific concerns in email but ultimately rejected the parents’ wishes. Despite providing proof of Mrs. Caul’s dissidence against Church teaching and offering to dual enroll their son in a comparable theology course through Franciscan University, Mulligan concluded in an email dated 6 January:
”While we understand that you made a request for him to take a different course in lieu of sophomore Theology, we did not agree to that as a school. The expectation is that he attends the Sophomore Theology that he is enrolled in to remain a student in good academic standing at Vianney.”
Screen captures from Mrs. Caul’s facebook and twitter accounts reveal that she has used the classroom to discuss inappropriate sexual matters with students, has endorsed the idea of women’s ordination to the priesthood, and has supported “Coming Out Day,” wherein people are encouraged to express and embrace their homosexuality.
In December 2019, Mrs. Caul made light of an in-class conversation regarding the immoral sexual activity of one of her students who had apparently received a “hickey.”
In October 2019, Mrs. Caul discussed sexual positions with her students.
In October 2018, Mrs. Caul posted an in-class conversation regarding “National Coming Out Day,” indicating that there was nothing wrong with individuals expressing and embracing their homosexual inclinations.
In April of 2018, Mrs. Caul applauded a student’s argument in favor of women’s ordination to the priesthood based upon the assertion that “The Church could always use help. Women have ideas and are, a lot of times, smarter than men.”
In December of 2018, Mrs. Caul applauded a priest’s homily during Mass, highlighting his claim that there are various types of families, including those with “two mothers” and “two fathers,” ending with the hashtag “LoveIsLove.”
This isn’t surprising, however, considering that in May of 2018, Mrs. Caul applauded and celebrated the same-sex “marriage” of her sister to another woman, even referring to the two woman as “wives.”
On Tuesday, January 15, The Lepanto Institute reached out to St. John Vianney High School for comment, with the following email:
Dear Mr. Mulligan and Mr. Loyet,
My name is Michael Hichborn and I’m the founder and president of the Lepanto Institute. Our organizations is dedicated to investigating and reporting on matters pertaining to the current crisis of faith in the Catholic Church today, and it was in this capacity I was contacted by the parent of one of your students.
This parent was alarmed by the social media postings of your 10th grade theology teacher, Mrs. Meredith Caul, who was clearly promoting homosexuality on facebook and twitter. Because of this, the parents requested that their son be allowed to opt out of Mrs. Caul’s class.
Upon further investigation, it has become clear that Mrs. Caul is using the classroom to advance ideas which directly conflict with Catholic teaching. We have collected quite a bit of information on Mrs. Caul, but the attached sample should suffice to prove the gravity of the situation. As you will see in the attachment, in addition to engaging in inappropriate discussions with her students, Mrs. Caul applauded a student’s classroom defense for the priestly ordination of women and facilitated a discussion centered around “National Coming Out Day,” as if it were perfectly normal and acceptable for someone to openly declare their homosexuality.
Before we send a report to the bishop and before we publish our findings, we wish to give you an opportunity to clear up any possible misunderstandings or to rectify the situation should you not have been aware of these classroom activities. As such, I am hoping you can provide answers to the following questions:
- Do you have an employee policy which stipulates that teachers must adhere to Church teaching and refrain from teaching anything counter to it?
- Do you have an employee conduct policy which forbids employees from engaging in behavior or activities which would reflect poorly on the school or the Catholic faith?
- Do you have a written policy which forbids students from opting out of classes?
- Were you aware that Mrs. Caul was advancing ideas contrary to Catholic teaching both outside and inside your classroom?
- Were you aware that Mrs. Caul has openly celebrated the same-sex “marriage” of her sister?
- Is there any information you believe we should be made aware of prior to finalizing our report?
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Michael Hichborn
Despite repeated attempts to ask for comment, the Lepanto Institute received no response.
In the past it has been speculated that our children loose their faith in college. Our PRIVATE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS have given a frightening opportunity for heresy and evil to flourish thru progressive liberal teachers to be visited upon our High School students. Parents as the Vicars of their children will rise up and be instrumental in bringing back our One Holy Catholic Apostolic Faith. St. Michael defend us in our day of battle.
Jane: While some colleges (both secular and religious) do challenge the faith of students, I cannot agree with you that ALL private Catholic schools are teaching heresy and evil. And this is not even true of all Marianist high schools. I graduated from a Marianist high school, Chaminade High School, Mineola, New York; and it was truly wonderful. I have stayed up with them over the years since I graduated. They have a Brother who is the principal and a Brother that is the President of the school. It is very much like Vianney HS in some, perhaps many ways, but it is “rigid” by some people’s standards. Several years ago, the principal canceled the school Senior Prom since he and others felt that it had become a drunken, sex party.
Perhaps not all of the facts have come out yet and so they are not published in this article. What is seen in this article, however, is the apparent lack of interest of the principal and president in investigating and clearing the name of the school – that doesn’t look good! It looks like a key problem might very well be lack of supervision (I hope so, and it needs to be fixed). Proper supervision could verify if the teachers, especially this Religion teacher, is conforming to Catholic standards. But in the interim, the principal should at the least indicate that the school is investigating.
Like you, I wonder what percentage of Marianist schools in the US are going in the way of Francis’ paths of heterodoxy. Probably some; but probably not all. I have seen some signs in a number of Catholic societies (like the Marianists – SM) and Orders that illustrate trendy lack of orthodoxy. But others are trying to “Keep the Faith.”
As for Sandra’s comment: “Rigidity and judgmental ideology will NOT grow the church but WILL destroy it. Jesus accepted all, murderers, adulterers, prostitutes and me,” you need to read the Scriptures more carefully than Pope Francis does. Jesus never said anything like “Who am I to judge”? He did judge, but He forgave and forgives “murderers, adulterers, prostitutes and me” and ME too. But He did say tell them (and all of us too) “Go and sin no more.” While He didn’t live by rigidity and judgmental ideology, He never said anything to indicate the Divine Law was no longer to be followed.
Thank you for your comments, Charles! We are taking a leap of faith and allowing our son to transfer into a Marianist school for his junior year. We will be keeping a close eye on what they’re teaching.
Our mission at St. John Vianney High School is to form young men for spiritual, academic, and personal excellence in the Catholic, Marianist tradition. We were founded by the Society of Mary in 1960 to help “bear witness to the Gospel through our lives and through our service characterized by simplicity, dialogue, discernment, and enablement for mission.” The “dialogue” and “discernment” in our classrooms and across our community are guided by the Gospel of Christ and the teachings of His Church. We are an active member of the Archdiocese of St. Louis with more than 9,000 graduates prepared for the vital issues confronting our Church and society.
We submitted a set of very clear and easy-to-answer questions to St. John Vianney and received no response. Why bother posting this comment if you have no intention of answering the questions sent to you?
Your institute and you views are spot on with what is wrong with the Catholic Church but the blame is inward not outward. Rigidity and judgmental ideology will NOT grow the church but WILL destroy it. Jesus accepted all, murderers, adulterers, prostitutes and me. Vianney is a fantastic school that embraces all, like Jesus does
Thank you. As one of the graduates of this fine establishment I will forever stand with Vianney and what it stands for. To the people saying that there isn’t a way to get out of Ms. Cauls class that is actually incorrect. The way to get out is to join the band and get a different class. I might not agree with all of the things that she teaches I agree in that Jesus accepted all and so should we
Rubbish thinking based on lack of knowledge.
St. Paul: “Those who consent to homo behavior are worthy of death.”
How did modern Catholics get so stupid, Just because you want perversion
to be seen as normal, doesn’t make it so.
Leads me to believe that lots of Catholics are doomed.
the whole school should be shut down and disinfected. Some oneS had to have known about her/this and,since you will never get the truth everyone unfortunately will have to suffer it’s the only way to clean out this filth.
Shut up. They know what they are doing. They aren’t gonna switch a kid to a different class just because he doesn’t like women. He should just deal with it. You don’t have to defend every gay kid because they are “special”. They aren’t different from straight people and you shouldn’t have a say in Vianney’s decisions. So stay out of it.
The publicist at St. John Vianney High School conveniently omitted the fact that the organization tolerates, condones, promotes intrinsically disordered sexual deviancy, along with employing those who do, and in doing so contradicts Christ, His bride, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture.
Liars. There is no testimony to the gospel in that class, except the LGBTQ gospel. Shame on you!
The students themselves should refuse to go to her class.
I am a graduate of another Marianist-staffed high school, and my daughter is a graduate of the same school. During her student years there, she took a religion class (I can’t say that it was titled “Theology” because I think it was not) during which the teacher (who is no longer teaching there) said specifically that all religions are equal. As I understand it, he also stated that attendance at Sunday Mass is not a requirement listed in the Church’s rules [Commandments]. With such […] (I have censored my description) making the rounds within the Church and its school communities, is it any wonder that students drop out of the Church? I should note, at this point that my daughter has dropped her attendance and is showing no real visible sign of willingness to return. She willingly sings at Mass if the cantor at a neighboring parish invites her, but that is the limit of her attendance. I should also note that this “stuff” is not in accord with the teaching that I received when I was a student in high school. Since I was never in any regular contact with my daughter’s religion teacher, I cannot reliably identify him, so don’t ask.
On the (VERY, VERY!!) positive side, my daughter graduated and then went on to a State university. Within a month, a fellow student (also a graduate from her high school) told her that a friend of hers needed tutoring (I believe the subject was chemistry). The tutoring went quite well. It was only after some two weeks that the student asked my daughter what her academic status was. When she replied that was an incoming freshman, his jaw dropped: he was a senior.
So many church officials in positions of authority, will simply make the wrong decision on many occasions, as they are swayed by fear of giving offense. On the issue of homosexuality, they cave every time.
Lepantoin organization is completely baseless, and ruins the progress that we have made as a society. The backwards thinking of people these days, to the point where any discussion that is outside of the normative regressive thinking is conflated into heretical, honestly appalls me. Freedom is a word that many tout these days, especially those who are Christian, Catholic, and especially American.
One of the largest means of Freedom that we have in our country is freedom of speech, something meant to allow democracy to flow and for new changing ideas and societal needs to blossom. The Catholic Church should be no different.
Allowing free discussion in a classroom setting, especially one that is teaching religion, is one of if not the most important things that can be done. It needs to be understood that, just because this is a Catholic school, every student is not going to be Catholic, Christian, or even religious at all (Coming from personal experience). If we do not allow our children to make their own choices, come to their own conclusions, while providing them with the avenues to ask questions (even those that pertain to sex, something that the Catholic Church heavily encourages within marriage). This can be applied to any in class discussions, and should be applied to what a teacher is allowed to discuss.
On the topic of homosexuality, and Mrs. Caul’s support of her own sister (who would not support their own sister?). We live in a progressive age, the Pope himself has stated that homosexuality itself is not a Sin, and clearly we are moving in a direction that is more open to everyone (something that Jesus himself preached). An important piece that is true of the Catholic Church today is the acknowledgement that some things in the Bible are to be interpreted and not adhered to blindly. If we did so, we would still have slaves, would be disallowed from shaving, circumcision would be required, the list goes on. Discussing changes to the current normal is something that should occur in a College preparatory school that strives to allow students to become “Men of Character and Accomplishment”.
This article, and the people that agree with it, are the problem with society today. Stuck in the past, unable to change. Get your minds out of the gutter, the Earth isn’t flat, medicine is real, lizard people aren’t, and most importantly THINGS CAN CHANGE.
I do pray that St. John Vianney does not fire Mrs. Caul, but commends her for her ability to give Students, Catholic and not, a place to learn about what Catholicism is and what it is becoming (that part is even more important). If you don’t like it, home school your kids or you could leave well enough alone (Lepantoin is not from Missouri, why are you writing about this? Seriously do not understand it, this is not your issue).
This is a Theology Course (Theology-The Study of the Nature of God and Religious Beliefs) not a sex-ed course in a public school. This is a Catholic School who should be obligated to promote Catholic Teaching. Catholic teaching tells us that active Homosexuality-is a grave disorder and any attempt to normalize this in the classroom is unacceptable. Mr’s Caul is certainly free to “support” her sister, but why would that support involve discussing those details in the classroom? Catholic schools, above all others, should provide sound doctrinal teaching and discussions that revolve around morals that assist these young men in making decisions in todays sinful world. You state that we should allow our children to make their own choices…are all choices okay? Where do we draw the line? If we don’t help them establish a sound moral compass then no one will. This is not “backward thinking” as you allege. It is not the Churches responsibility to “keep up with the times”, on the contrary, the Church should be in opposition to the sexual deviancy that exists today. Your idea of progress and mine are completely different. I believe that we have de-evolved as a society as the parameters of what is acceptable grows with every passing year. Whether you like it or not sin exists and active homosexuality is a sin. She should take her agenda and teach somewhere else….or be shown the door.
Why did you sign in as ‘Anonymous’?
If you believe this liberal claptrap you’re espousing, why not take credit for it?
Fear…is why so many moral truths are being ignored today. The ‘alphabet’ group are such a threat to some poor, weak souls. They feel safer just going with the flow, not making waves…
We are the Church MILITANT! It is not charitable to condone or ignore sin.
‘Anonymous’ is the perfect example of what is wrong in our Holy Catholic Church. We must help these souls to look beyond society and the world, and embrace Jesus Christ, the Word, and eternity with Him. Charity is only charity when it uplifts one’s soul.
There is nothing progressive about progressivism. It is a return to the days before Christ, of “anything goes as long as it feels good.” Jesus was progressive, He showed us a different way. It’s your thinking that’s backwards.
Matthew 18:6 – “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.”