Amid Bangladesh energy crisis, Catholics oppose online classes proposal
The Archbishop of Dhaka is urging the Bangladeshi government to reconsider a proposal to implement online classes as a response to the national energy crisis. Catholic educators and parents argue that online learning negatively impacts academic performance, moral development, and student focus. Concerns have been raised that shifting to virtual instruction could exacerbate existing learning gaps and increase screen addiction, particularly for low-income families. Students and stakeholders suggest alternative measures, such as reducing physical class hours, rather than transitioning to a fully online system.
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Catholic education must preserve moral formation over virtual instruction
Catholic education cannot treat technology—whether “virtual instruction” or AI-mediated learning—as the main engine of formation. The Church consistently frames education as integral formation of the whole person toward the final end, and she insists that moral and religious education are not optional add-ons but core elements. Virtual tools may assist learning within that larger purpose, but they must not replace the human, communal, and moral formation that education must provide.
The Second Vatican Council teaches that “a true education aims at the formation of human persons with respect both to their final end and to the good of the society” for which they will take responsibility. Catholic formation therefore has an inherent hierarchy of purposes: it is not primarily the transfer of information, but the formation of persons ordered to God and to authentic human good.
John Paul II repeatedly emphasizes that Catholic schools should not merely teach religion as content; they must provide balanced human formation with firm moral reference points and solid Christian formation. He also stresses that, as part of the Church’s mission, “moral and religious education” must be made available to all who desire it, and that Catholic schools must ensure this mission is embodied through the witness of educators’ lives.
This is not a sentimental point: the Church links moral formation to real education and to the Church’s teaching. The Compendium of the Catechism states:
“An upright and true moral conscience is formed by education and by assimilating the Word of God and the teaching of the Church.”
So if you ask, “What must be preserved?” the Church’s answer is that the formation of conscience, virtue, and moral judgment—founded on the Word of God, Church teaching, and prayer—must not be displaced by a purely instructional model.
Virtual instruction can be a delivery method for lessons, but Catholic moral formation requires more than cognitive acquisition.
John Paul II warns that technological and cultural change can bring “negative consequences, such as superficiality, lack of creativity and fragmentation.” Even when content is correct, the mode of learning can undermine the kind of integrated formation the Church envisions.
More importantly, Catholic moral formation depends on practices and relationships that virtual platforms often cannot reproduce adequately:
In other words, virtual instruction may transmit information, but Catholic education must still form a person’s moral life through an environment of witness, mentoring, and spiritual direction.
The Church does not demand technological rejection. Rather, she insists on ordering technology to the authentic ends of education and keeping it within the right human framework.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education state that AI can be used as “a valuable educational resource” if used prudently, “within the context of an existing teacher-student relationship,” and “ordered to the authentic goals of education.” That aligns with the Council’s principle that education aims at holistic formation, “never a mere process of passing on facts and intellectual skills,” but a contribution to “the person’s holistic formation” including spiritual and community dimensions.
So the key Catholic distinction is not: “in-person vs. virtual.” It is: formation vs. mere instruction, and human moral accompaniment vs. content delivery.
Where the Church addresses distance learning directly, she treats it as secondary and subject to oversight. For example, in formation for permanent deacons, the national directory states that if a distance-learning format is used for intellectual and pastoral dimensions, the diocesan bishop must verify that:
This is a practical ecclesial principle: virtual delivery is not morally neutral. It must be supervised to ensure it serves the same ends as on-site formation.
If you want a Catholic standard for prioritizing moral formation, here are concrete criteria consistent with the Church’s teaching and warnings:
Your thesis is faithful to Catholic principles: Catholic education must preserve moral formation as the center, because the Church defines education as integral formation toward the final end—not as a mere virtual transfer of information. Virtual instruction can support learning only when it serves that purpose, remains within real human formation relationships, and is structured to protect against fragmentation and superficiality.