Cardinal Pitches Catholic Classes as AI Ethics Solution in Portugal's Public Schools

Cardinal Américo Aguiar has urged Portuguese families to enroll their children in Catholic religious education classes for 2026/27, framing the publicly-funded program as essential training for navigating artificial intelligence and digital misinformation—a pitch that has reignited debate over church involvement in state schools.

Why This Matters

• Optional but omnipresent: Catholic Religious and Moral Education (EMRC) is mandatory for schools to offer but optional for students—yet non-participants often miss out on field trips with no alternative activities provided.

• Funded under treaty: The 2004 Concordat between Portugal and the Vatican guarantees the Catholic Church tax exemptions (including VAT and property tax) and the right to teach EMRC in public schools.

• Declining enrollment: EMRC lost over 122,000 students between 2012/13 and 2021/22 in mainland Portugal, dropping from 265,981 to 143,407 enrollments.

• AI ethics pitch: Church leaders now frame the class as essential training for navigating artificial intelligence and digital misinformation.

Church Pitches EMRC as Antidote to Digital Age Risks

Aguiar, the only Portuguese cardinal leading a diocese and bishop of Setúbal, released his statement in 2025 urging parents to enroll their children in EMRC. His message, directed at families, educators, and students, describes the course as "open to everyone, everyone, everyone: believers, non-believers, seekers, the indifferent, or those from other religious traditions."

The cardinal's argument hinges on technological disruption and ethical uncertainty. He invoked recent warnings from UNESCO about algorithmic discrimination, opaque decision-making, and the spread of disinformation through artificial intelligence systems. In his view, EMRC equips students with the moral compass needed to resist manipulation in an age of algorithmic control.

"No machine can replace the depth of human relationships, interiority, and moral responsibility," Aguiar stated, positioning the class as a bulwark against what he termed "digital tribalism" and "sameness relationships" that prevent genuine encounters with the other.

He framed enrollment not as an identity marker but as "a conscious choice in favor of dialogue and building a more human future." The pitch rebrands the confessional class as a pluralistic forum for empathy and fraternity, transforming diversity "into a bridge, not a wall," according to the cardinal.

The Field Trip Gap: What Families Need to Know

For parents considering enrollment, a critical practical issue warrants attention: the exclusion of non-participants from field trips and special events. Schools offering EMRC typically organize outings and gatherings exclusively for enrolled students, with no substitute programming for those who decline the class.

The Portugal Atheist Association (AAP) has documented this pattern extensively. In August 2025, AAP president João Lourenço reported receiving multiple complaints from families whose children were systematically excluded from school trips because they had opted out of EMRC. This two-tier system—where public school activities become de facto privileges of religious class enrollment—raises practical concerns for residents making enrollment decisions.

Parents should ask their schools directly: "If my child doesn't take EMRC, what alternative activities are provided during field trips and special events?" The absence of a clear answer signals a potential fairness issue worth escalating to school administration or local education authorities.

Enrollment Patterns and Institutional Investment

The Portugal Catholic Church has embedded EMRC into the national curriculum infrastructure, partnering with Porto Editora to provide 529 digital resources across all school cycles via the publisher's "Escola Virtual" platform—a suite launched in the 2024/25 academic year.

Schools must offer the class from primary through secondary levels, including vocational tracks. Parents who opt in gain access to programming that includes organized field trips and special events, such as the 26th Interescolas gathering scheduled for March 20 in Torres Vedras, expecting 2,000 participants from 2nd and 3rd cycle students in the Lisbon Patriarchate.

The Portugal Catholic University's Faculty of Theology has reaffirmed its commitment to EMRC instructor preparation, launching the RELIGARE Institute to provide continuous professional development for educators. Between February and March 2025, RELIGARE partnered with the National Secretariat for Christian Education (SNEC) to deliver training titled "EMRC and the Digital Ecosystem: Practices and Resources," directly supporting the AI ethics narrative Cardinal Aguiar emphasized.

Historical Context and Legal Framework

The arrangement stems from Portugal's 2004 Concordat with the Holy See, which grants the Catholic Church unique privileges including exemptions from municipal property tax (IMI) and value-added tax (IVA), alongside the guaranteed presence of EMRC in state schools. This concordat, renegotiated from a 1940 agreement, reflects Portugal's historical Catholic identity but sits uneasily with the constitutional principle of secularity that critics invoke.

Enrollment figures tell a story of gradual secularization. From a peak of approximately 265,981 students in 2012/13, participation has plummeted to 143,407 by 2021/22 across mainland public schools. Regional variation is significant—the Archdiocese of Braga reported 42% participation in 2024, above the national average and considered stable compared to sharp declines elsewhere.

Demographers attribute the drop to two forces: overall declining school enrollment and erosion of Catholic affiliation among Portuguese families. Counterintuitively, some regions report modest increases in EMRC participation among foreign-born students from other religious backgrounds, drawn by the structured moral education component rather than doctrinal alignment.

The Church-Secularist Divide

The Portugal Atheist Association, which in June 2025 reinforced its opposition to public funding of religious temples based on constitutional secularity principles, views EMRC similarly—as a violation of secular governance. The organization argues that state resources—teacher salaries, classroom space, administrative coordination—subsidize Catholic instruction, regardless of the Church's pluralistic messaging.

Church leadership counters that EMRC enrollment remains voluntary and that the course offers "irreplaceable and inestimable contribution to integral and humanistic education." Dioceses across Portugal ran coordinated enrollment campaigns throughout 2025, urging priests, parents, and pastoral agents to promote the class as essential for "integral personal growth and the living of human and Christian values."

This institutional push reflects awareness that demographic and cultural shifts threaten the program's viability. With over 122,000 fewer students in a decade, the Church has pivoted from traditional evangelization language to universal appeals about empathy, critical thinking, and digital ethics—framing EMRC as public service rather than catechism.

European Context: Confessional vs. Secular Models

Portugal's approach places it in a distinct category. Most Catholic-majority countries—Austria, Croatia, Spain, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Poland—offer optional denominational religious education backed by concordat agreements. Scandinavian countries have progressively de-confessionalized religious instruction, reframing it as cultural education. France enforces strict secularism, banning religious instruction from public schools. England mandates transconfessional religious education covering multiple faiths, while Belgium and Luxembourg offer non-confessional ethics as alternatives.

This European landscape underscores the question Portugal continues to navigate: whether a confessional class can genuinely serve as neutral ethical training in an increasingly diverse society.

Looking Ahead

Whether the Church's AI ethics rebranding resonates with increasingly secular Portuguese families will become evident in enrollment figures for the 2026/27 academic year. For residents weighing the decision, the stakes are both ideological and practical—touching on constitutional principles, family values, and concrete concerns like field trip access.