Catholic News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the farm bill in a 224-200 vote on April 30, advancing legislation that could reshape U.S. global food assistance, following warnings from Catholic organizations about its potential impact on global hunger response efforts.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which had urged lawmakers ahead of the vote to preserve and strengthen global food aid programs, said in an emailed statement to EWTN News that it was "encouraged that key international food security and nutrition programs were protected."

"Several steps remain in the process," it continued, "and we look forward to continuing to work with both parties to lift up these essential programs as conversations move forward."

The bill's passage marks a step forward in a farm bill process that has stalled in recent years since the 2018 reauthorization. Senate consideration is next, where lawmakers are expected to consider revisions amid ongoing debate over how the federal government should structure food assistance at home and abroad.

At the center of the international provisions is Food for Peace, the U.S. flagship global hunger program that provides food assistance to countries facing war, natural disasters, or severe economic instability, often serving as a key source of emergency food aid worldwide.

Under the House-passed bill, Food for Peace would be permanently transferred from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a shift long debated by policymakers. USAID has been largely dismantled under the Trump administration, with most of its programs absorbed into the U.S. Department of State.

The legislation also would require that at least 50% of Food for Peace funding be used to purchase and transport U.S.-grown agricultural commodities. Additionally, the bill includes a $200 million earmark for ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), nutrient-dense products used to treat severe malnutrition in children.

Supporters argue the changes would strengthen ties between U.S. farmers and international aid programs, while humanitarian groups have raised concerns that they could reduce flexibility in responding to emergencies.

The House Agriculture Committee has defended the changes as strengthening the connection between U.S. agriculture and international food assistance while maintaining the program's humanitarian purpose.

The House-passed bill also would reauthorize the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program, which supports efforts to reduce hunger and improve literacy in low-income countries. Organizations such as Save the Children and Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy group focused on reducing global hunger, praised the provision, framing it as consistent with broader humanitarian goals.

Hunger as a 'moral issue'

Catholic organizations have consistently framed international food assistance as part of a broader moral responsibility toward vulnerable populations, a theme reflected in recent joint advocacy from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), CRS, and other Catholic agencies.

In earlier outreach to Congress ahead of the vote, CRS warned that limiting flexibility or resources could weaken the ability of the United States to respond quickly when families face hunger driven by forces beyond their control.

"Programs like Food for Peace have a long track record of saving lives, and it's critical they remain well funded and able to adapt to complex emergencies," CRS said in a statement, describing hunger as not just a policy issue "but a moral one."

Much of the broader House debate also centered on domestic nutrition policy, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as lawmakers considered amendments addressing eligibility rules and restrictions on certain food purchases like rotisserie chickens.

Debate on the bill also included contentious provisions related to pesticide regulation and other agricultural policy issues, reflecting broader divisions over the direction of federal farm policy.

Lawmakers considered more than 300 amendments during the process, with roughly 49 ultimately adopted or incorporated into the final package.

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Text messages released by the Senate Judiciary Committee show two former federal prosecutors discussing desires to prosecute nuns during investigations of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Joseph Cooney and Molly Gaston, career prosecutors at the Justice Department rather than political appointees, played a role in prosecuting President Donald Trump during former President Joe Biden's administration. Both were fired shortly after Trump became president a second time and are legal partners at Gaston & Cooney PLLC. Cooney is running for Congress in Virginia.

While texting on government-issued devices, Gaston wrote about a photo published by The New York Times from Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally, which preceded the Jan. 6 attack, saying: "I just noticed for the first time the nuns near the oathkeepers in one of the NYT photographs."

Cooney said, "I know!" to which Gaston replied: "I would like to take a special assignment of finding and prosecuting them."

Cooney, who worked in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, responded to her comments about prosecuting the women by saying "I'm with you" and adding: "Although I'd like to prosecute any nun who still wears the head habit." Gaston, who was a lead prosecutor in the special counsel's Jan. 6-related case involving allegations of efforts to overturn the 2020 election, replied to the message with "hahaha."

The photo shows three women wearing traditional habits standing on the National Mall near the stage for the rally and does not show them trying to breach restricted areas or enter the U.S. Capitol. The women appear to be associated with a convent that is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and does not have canonical standing with the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, where they are located.

Another photo of the women at the rally published by The Conversation also does not show anyone trying to enter restricted areas or the Capitol. EWTN News could not reach the women in the photos.

The text messages also show Gaston saying "people are insane" for wanting priests to deny Communion to Biden. The two also discussed the COVID-19-era restrictions on the Mass, with Gaston saying she has been "really bad about [tuning into] video Mass" and Cooney saying "video Mass is really hard."

Nearly all Catholic sisters and nuns wore habits prior to the Second Vatican Council, although the practice since then often depends on the religious community to which the person belongs or can come down to personal choice.

The Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles explain on their website that a habit is "economical, simple, modest, and above all a sign, a symbol, of God and his love for each of us."

"Our habit calls out silently to people we meet or even pass by in the street, the store, even the beach," the website states. "It says, 'Look up; for greater things you were born.' It says, 'Hold on, this too shall pass, and God is with you always leading you in the way you are to go.' It says, 'I am a symbol, a reminder, of God's presence in our world. You can't actually see him, but in seeing me you are reminded of him.'"

The Dominican Sisters of Mary Immaculate Province state on their website that their habit is "a sign of our consecration to God and witness to poverty."

"We are vested with a white tunic, a black belt with a rosary attached, a white scapular, a veil, and cappa," it states. "Symbolically, black reminds us that we have been called from the death valley of sin toward a life of intensified grace in Christ (white). The visible habit furthermore reflects the simplicity of life, innocence, renunciation, penance, and mortification, a hidden life in Christ."

'I was appalled'

EWTN News received copies of the text exchange, first reported by the Daily Wire, from the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. EWTN News contacted Cooney's campaign and the law firm where both are partners to request a comment and did not receive a response.

The messages were provided to Grassley's office by the Justice Department in relation to a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into federal efforts to prosecute Trump during Biden's presidency.

"Freedom of religion is a cherished First Amendment right enshrined in our Constitution by the Founding Fathers," Grassley, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement provided to EWTN News.

"I was appalled, but sadly not surprised, to discover evidence of Biden DOJ prosecutors threatening to use the power of the federal justice system to target people of faith," he said. "Time and again, my oversight has shown the Biden Justice Department, including these prosecutors who went on to advance Jack Smith's Arctic Frost investigation, showed total disdain for equal justice."

Nearly 1,600 people were prosecuted in Jan. 6 cases for a range of offenses connected to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including unlawful entry, assault, property destruction, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy, with President Trump later granted clemency to about 1,500 of them.

It does not appear the photographed women faced prosecution, although some Catholic sisters have fended off federal encroachment into their religious activities in recent years.

Most famously, the Little Sisters of the Poor won a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2020 following a nine-year-long battle against the mandate to cover contraception in their insurance plans, per rules in the Affordable Care Act. In spite of that victory, the sisters are still fighting federal contraception rules in court.

In New York, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who provide care to terminally ill people, faced a warning from the state Department of Health for "refusing to assign a room to a resident other than in accordance with the resident's gender identity." They are also fighting the rules in court.

On April 30, Trump's DOJ published a report on "anti-Christian bias" it alleges plagued the federal government under Biden's presidency. It documents rules and regulations that damaged religious liberty related to abortion, contraception, and gender policies. It alleges weaponization of the government against Christians, including pro-life protesters.

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Pope Leo XIV echoed his calls for dialogue and peace between the United States and Iran while expressing grief over the deaths of innocent children killed in a military attack that struck a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran.

The Holy Father offered these comments April 23 after he received a letter from parents of girls who died in the strike. More than 150 people were killed in the Feb. 28 strike, which the Defense Department says it is investigating.

"I have just seen a letter from families of children who were killed on the first day of the attack," Leo said while speaking to journalists on a flight back to Rome after visiting four countries in Africa, according to the Vatican-run Vatican News.

"They speak about how they have lost their children, who died in that event," he said. "The issue is not whether there is regime change or not; the issue is how to promote the values we believe in without the death of so many innocent people."

Leo called the situation in Iran "complex" amid the ongoing ceasefire, stating that "one day Iran says yes and the United States says no, and vice versa." The pope warned: "We do not know where things are heading."

"This chaotic, critical situation for the global economy has been created, but there is also an entire population in Iran of innocent people suffering because of this war," he said. "So, on regime change, yes or no: It is not even clear what regime currently exists after the first days of attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran."

"Rather, I would encourage the continuation of dialogue for peace, that all sides make every effort to promote peace, remove the threat of war, and respect international law," he said. "It is very important that innocent people are protected, as has not happened in several places."

The letter from the parents of the victims was published in full by a reporter for Press TV, which is operated by the Iranian government. The letter is written in Farsi.

According to a partial English translation on Press TV, the parents said the pontiff's consistent advocacy for peace "offered a healing touch to our broken hearts."

"Today, instead of feeling the warmth of our children's embrace, we are left to hold onto their charred bags and bloody journals," the letter said, according to the translation.

"Our children will never return home to build a brighter future, but it is the prayer of us grieving parents that your message to 'lay down the weapons' be heard, at a time when the United States and the Israeli regime fuel the flames of these atrocities with their excessive demands," it added.

When asked for comment, the Defense Department pointed EWTN News to comments made by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on April 24 when asked about the pope's comment on Iran.

"We know what our mission is," he said. "We know what authority we have. We're very clear about that. We follow the orders of the president."

"We've got lawyers all over the place, looking at what we're doing and why we're doing it, and giving us every authority necessary under the Constitution and under our laws to execute it," he added. "So we feel very confident across the spectrum about what we're doing and why we're doing it, and the legal justification that we're following in order to do it."

A Defense Department official told EWTN News that the strike on the school in Minab "is currently under investigation" and "more details will be provided [when] they become available." The Pentagon has not claimed responsibility for the strike.

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Police in Bangladesh arrested three Muslim men on April 30 in connection with a late-night assault on an Oblate missionary and a robbery at a Catholic church in the country's capital, authorities said.

Officers raided the area on the night of April 30 and detained the suspects, according to Tanvir Ahmed, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. Ahmed said the men had prior robbery cases against them and that police were continuing to investigate.

"The Christian community was celebrating Easter Sunday a month ago and the robbers thought the father had extra money, so they committed this robbery," Ahmed told EWTN News.

According to police, the men arrived at the church on a rickshaw; the driver kept watch outside while two others scaled the perimeter wall, cut through a grille, and entered the priest's bedroom.

The predawn assault

The arrests follow an attack at around 2:30 a.m. on April 28 on Father Subash Pulok Gomes, OMI, 51, an Oblate missionary who lives in the compound of De Mazenod Catholic Church in Baridhara, Dhaka's diplomatic enclave.

The intruders made off with cash, the priest's passport, and other documents, according to the police account. Gomes is currently undergoing treatment.

"They beat me and tortured me and tied me up and then fought with me, and my nose and face were injured," Gomes said.

A day after the incident, the priest filed a general diary with police describing the assault.

"When I was crying, they covered my face with a cloth and beat me," he said in his statement. "Two unidentified people beat me and took 250,000 [taka; $2,037] and other valuable papers including my passport that were kept in the cupboard in the room."

According to the statement, one of the assailants called the other "Mizan" — a name commonly used among Muslim men in Bangladesh — and tried to calm the priest before the men left with the cash and documents.

Following the incident, the priests, in consultation with their superior and other Church authorities, filed only the general diary rather than pursuing a formal criminal case.

"For religious and spiritual reasons, I and the Church authorities will not file any case regarding the incident. I request that the incident be recorded in the general diary for future reference," Gomes said.

A priest told EWTN News that Gomes is now undergoing mental trauma. A second robbery occurred at a Catholic residence on the same night, lay leaders and Church authorities said, expressing concern over the incidents.

A pattern of attacks

The De Mazenod Church has been targeted before. On May 4, 2022, police arrested a 26-year-old Muslim man, Mohammad Nahid Sheikh, for hurling bricks at the church and damaging an image of the Virgin Mary.

In April of that year, a young man attacked a Catholic church in Joypurhat in northern Bangladesh and destroyed statues of Jesus, Mary, and St. Teresa of Calcutta.

More recently, attackers detonated a homemade bomb outside St. Mary's Cathedral in Dhaka on Nov. 7, 2025; hours later, another device exploded inside the compound of St. Joseph's Higher Secondary School and College in the Mohammadpur neighborhood. About a month earlier, on Oct. 8, 2025, a similar device was detonated at the gate of Holy Rosary Catholic Church, founded by Portuguese missionaries in 1677 and one of the oldest Catholic institutions in the country.

In 2001, 10 Catholics were killed and dozens injured in a bomb blast during a Sunday Mass in Gopalganj, in southern Bangladesh, but the incident is still being investigated.

Christians account for less than 0.5% of the population of Bangladesh, and religious minorities together make up around 8% of the more than 180 million people in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.

Christian leaders demand investigation

Christian leaders are calling for justice. After the latest robbery, representatives of the Bangladesh Christian Association met with priests at De Mazenod Church and demanded a government investigation.

The association's president, Nirmal Rozario, said the incident was very unfortunate and posed grave risks to religious life in the country.

"We condemn this incident and demand a fair investigation from the government into this incident and all the incidents that have happened to Christian minority communities in the past," Rozario told EWTN News.

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For the first time, the Sudeten German Association, uniting descendants of those expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II, will gather in Brno, the second-largest city in modern-day Czech Republic. They were invited by the cultural festival Meeting Brno for part of its multiday program in late May. Both entities will discuss reconciliation and commemorate the victims of the Shoah.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is expected to come, too. The gathering is titled "All Life Is Meeting."

A reconciliation Mass will be celebrated at the Brno Exhibition Centre as part of the gathering.

Ulrike Scharf, Bavarian state minister for family, labor, and social affairs, told EWTN News that the event "shows that we are reconciled, that we have become friends."

Scharf, whose agenda includes Sudeten Germans in Bavaria, stressed that reconciliation is "the essence of Europe." In this "wonderful" European community, "it is crucial that we meet in friendship," the politician explained.

Yet the decision created a polemic in Czechia, with public figures weighing in and a series of protests, one of which was attended by the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Tomio Okamura. Rather than reconciliation, they see the gathering as a provocation and relativization of history.

The critique came also from Miloš Zeman and Václav Klaus, who served as presidents as well as prime ministers of Czechia. "We have nothing to reconcile with the Germans," Klaus said, clarifying that he does "not feel not reconciled" with them.

"We did not trigger two world wars" and "are not the cause of tens of millions of victims" of World War II, Klaus explained, arguing that as prime minister in 1997, he signed, together with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the Czech-German Declaration on Mutual Relations and Their Future Development.

Wounds that remain

However, the bishop of Brno, Pavel Konzbul, welcomed "every initiative that leads to the meeting of people, to dialogue, and to overcoming historical injustices," he underscored for EWTN News.

"Reconciliation between nations and individuals," the prelate continued, "does not happen by denying or simplifying the past but by "talking about it truthfully and with respect."

Thus, he sees "the presence of the descendants of the Sudeten Germans" in his diocese "primarily as an opportunity for such a meeting," provided "it takes place in a spirit of respect, without mutual accusations or spreading false slander, and with openness to the other."

The local bishop appealed to participants, residents, and critics to act with "calm, respect, and to a willingness to look for what can unite us."

Only "such attitudes are the basis of true and lasting peace," the bishop underlined.

When the new archbishop of Prague, Stanislav Pribyl, was the bishop of Litomerice a few months ago, he proclaimed 2026 a Year of Reconciliation to address wounds that remain from World War II and its aftermath.

Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland, the majority-German region in Czechoslovakia, in 1938 and later established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the country. Following Germany's defeat, Czechoslovakia expelled approximately 3 million ethnic Germans.

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Pope Leo XIV's prayer intention for the month of May is that everyone might have food.

In a video released on X, the Holy Father asked the faithful: "What do you feel about 318 million people experiencing acute hunger every day?"

"We need to act, but without prayer we will remain powerless," he said. "This May, I invite you to join me in prayer that we may seriously commit to avoiding food waste and to ensuring that everyone has access to quality food every day."

In the full video shared on the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month's prayer intention.

Here is the pope's full prayer:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lord of creation,

You gave us the fertile earth and, with it, our daily bread,

as a sign of your love and providence.

Today we recognize with sorrow

that millions of brothers and sisters continue to suffer from hunger,

while so many goods are wasted at our tables.

Awaken in us a new awareness:

that we learn to thank for every food,

to consume simply,

to share with joy,

and to care for the fruits of the earth as a gift from you,

destined for all, not just a few.

Good Father,

make us capable of transforming the logic of selfish consumption

into a culture of solidarity.

May our communities promote concrete gestures:

awareness campaigns, food banks,

and a sober and responsible lifestyle.

You who sent us your beloved Son Jesus,

broken bread for the life of the world,

give us a new heart, hungry for justice and thirsty for fraternity.

May no one be excluded from the common table,

and may your Spirit teach us to see bread

not as an object of consumption,

but as a sign of communion and care.

Amen.

"Pray with the Pope" is accessible on the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network website and its digital platforms.

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"We're already in the Good Friday" of the pro-life cause, said Ingrid Tapia, author of the book "Every Life Matters: Bulletproof Arguments," which details "the 20 best" nonreligious arguments in the defense of human life.

During her tour of Mexico to promote the book, which was released in February, Tapia spoke on April 28 with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, saying that the pro-life cause is a matter of "a commitment to civilization," one that means opposing "any form of human extermination — be it abortion, the death penalty, or eugenics."

She addressed a draft ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Mexico's highest judicial body, which "seeks the decriminalization of abortion and, consequently, the permission to perform abortions throughout the entire nine months of gestation."

The ruling concerns a 2024 constitutional challenge to a state law protecting life from conception in which the court states that "removing abortion from penal codes is fundamental to precluding criminal proceedings and eradicating social criminalization and that which occurs within healthcare services."

Defending life: 'A commitment to civilization'

Given the current legal and cultural juncture Mexico is facing, she explained, "we have [selected] the 20 best arguments from a nonreligious perspective to come to the defense of life and seek to dismantle, because they are either false or flawed, the 20 most popular excuses we always hear to promote the decriminalization of abortion."

"Defending life is not something proprietary to Catholics," she pointed out, although she highlighted that "Catholics have been doing so for 2,000 years, and doing it very well."

"We human beings are the ones who create the state and governments in any era and in any country," she emphasized; therefore, "we must radically oppose any branch of the government of a state arrogating to itself or assigning to itself the authority to decide which humans live and which humans die."

The discussion regarding the draft ruling at the Mexican Supreme Court was scheduled for early January but has since been postponed indefinitely.

A legal expert, Tapia served as a distinguished professor of Roman law and civil law at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico and currently teaches electoral law in the master's program in constitutional law at Pan-American University.

She has also advised the John Paul II Institute and Red Familia (Family Network), among others, on issues such as surrogacy, palliative care, abortion, advance directives, and conscientious objection. She is a member of the Interdisciplinary Family Studies Group at Pan-American University.

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Keys to the 'cultural battle'

In the "cultural battle" to defend life, she stated, "it's essential to correctly choose the terrain, to correctly choose one's weapons."

"If you defend life based on your religious position and you go before a court seeking to defend life using faith-based arguments, it is highly probable that you will fail; for constitutional or constitutional-procedural language entails certain requirements that are incompatible with the language you are employing, or want to employ," she explained.

She even warned that "it is highly probable that you will be stigmatized and dismissed right from the start," which is why it is important to avoid — to borrow a war analogy — 'bringing horses to a naval battle.'"

"That is why this set of arguments serves a practical purpose," she emphasized, for it "compiles the 20 best, truly splendid arguments for defending human life without any religious basis."

"Every Life Matters: Bulletproof Arguments," published by Ediciones MUAC, is now available for sale in Mexico in Spanish, and will be available for purchase through Amazon in the coming weeks. English and French versions are currently in the works.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Pope Leo XIV has appointed multiple new bishops to lead several dioceses around the United States, the Vatican announced on May 1.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a press release that Father John Gomez was appointed bishop-designate of the Diocese of Laredo, Texas, upon the retirement of Bishop James Tamayo from the position.

Tamayo has served in that role for more than a quarter-century, having been appointed to the post in 2000 by Pope John Paul II. At 76, he has reached the customary age of retirement for bishops.

Gomez was born in Colombia on Dec. 15, 1975. He received a master of divinity degree from the University of St. Thomas in Houston and was ordained in the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, on May 23, 2009.

He has served at multiple parishes in Tyler and in multiple roles for the diocese itself, including as judicial vicar and on the diocesan review board. He also served as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Tyler Diocese from 2015 to 2023 and again from 2025.

West Virginia diocese gets new bishop; 2 new auxiliary bishops for Washington

In West Virginia, Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Mark Brennan will retire to be replaced by Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, who currently serves as an auxiliary bishop of Washington. Brennan, 79, is four years past the customary retirement age; he was installed at his present post in 2019.

Menjivar-Ayala, born Aug. 14, 1970, is a native of El Salvador; he is the first Salvadoran bishop in the history of the United States.

A graduate of St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, he attended the Pontifical North American College in Rome before receiving a master's degree in theology from the Angelicum. Ordained in the Archdiocese of Washington on May 29, 2004, he has served as parochial vicar and pastor at several parishes.

He was named vicar general of the archdiocese in 2023 and has served on the priest personnel board and the priest council. He was ordained as an auxiliary bishop there on Feb. 21, 2023.

With Menjivar-Ayala's departure from Washington, meanwhile — and as archdiocesan Auxiliary Bishop Roy Campbell Jr. retires — the archdiocese will receive two new auxiliary bishops: Father Gary Studniewski and Father Robert Boxie III.

Bishop-designate Studniewski is presently a priest of the archdiocese, where he serves as pastor at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the District of Columbia. He was ordained on June 24, 1995, in the archdiocese and served as a military chaplain for nearly a decade.

Bishop-designate Boxie is also a priest in the diocese, currently serving as a chaplain at Howard University. He received engineering and law degrees from Vanderbilt University and Harvard, respectively, before studying at the pontifical universities in Rome. He was ordained on June 25, 2016.

He served at several Maryland parishes before his appointment at Howard and has also taught at the archdiocesan permanent diaconate program.

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Church leaders in Pakistan have welcomed the passage of a bill by the Punjab Assembly that classifies underage marriage as a non-bailable offense, while cautioning that enforcement challenges and systemic gaps could limit its impact on girls from minority communities.

The Child Marriage Restraint Bill 2026, passed on April 27, sets 18 years as the minimum legal age of marriage for both boys and girls. Previously, the minimum age stood at 18 for males and 16 for females in Punjab, home to Pakistan's largest Christian community.

The House also adopted an amendment directing courts not to treat the mere statement or purported consent of a child to reside with or accompany an adult contracting party as determinative in custody, residence, or protective orders.

Agreement on child protection

Moved by Ijaz Masih, a Christian member of the Punjab Assembly and former provincial minister for human rights and minority affairs, and co-sponsored by 13 members across party lines, the amendment was described as a rare instance of consensus on child protection.

Church representatives linked the law to ongoing concerns over how consent is assessed in cases involving alleged forced conversion and marriage of minority girls.

"In Pakistan's forced conversion cases of Christian and Hindu families, the statement recorded before a magistrate is often crucial because it provides a girl's testimony under judicial oversight," Masih told EWTN News, adding that proposals to annul such marriages remain under consideration.

The bill was passed amid renewed concern in Christian circles after the Federal Constitutional Court on March 25 upheld the marriage of a 13-year-old Christian girl, Maria Bibi, to a 30-year-old Muslim man.

Speaking at an April 30 Bible study session organized by the Ecumenical Commission for Human Development at St. Francis Catholic Church in Kamalpur village in the Faisalabad Diocese, Father Obaid Matthais, dean of studies at St. Thomas the Apostle Minor Seminary, questioned the effectiveness of the reform.

"How can the new law prevent forced conversion when the Muslim nikah [marriage] remains valid?" he said, warning that minority girls studying or working away from home remain at risk.

He added that such rulings "hang like a sword" over vulnerable Christian girls, particularly domestic workers and students in urban centers.

Christian leaders, including Archbishop Khalid Rehmat of Lahore, have also expressed concern that court decisions in such cases risk legitimizing disputed marriages involving minors allegedly abducted and forcibly converted, especially in the absence of updated personal laws governing Christian marriage and family life.

The proposed reform of the Christian Marriage Act of 1872 seeks to raise the minimum marriage age for Christian boys and girls to 18 and require both parties to be Christian for a marriage to be solemnized under the law, replacing current provisions that allow interfaith marriages.

Rehmat has announced the formation of a church committee to draft amendments following an ecumenical consultation held in Lahore on April 24–25.

Qamar Iqbal, assistant professor of political science, described the Child Marriage Restraint Bill as a "protective mechanism," saying it could strengthen legal safeguards if implemented effectively.

In a joint statement issued on April 29, Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops' Conference and chairperson of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), together with Father Bernard Emmanuel, NCJP national director, and Naeem Yousaf Gill, NCJP executive director, described the legislation as a "defining move" to safeguard childhood and uphold human dignity.

While welcoming the law, they stressed that legislation alone is not sufficient to end child marriage and called for strict enforcement. "Union councils, nikah registrars, and police must be held accountable, and courts must enforce the law without exception," the statement said.

They urged institutions and families not to bypass the law under the guise of custom or tradition.

"The problem remains due to dual legal systems [constitutional and Sharia]. Judges are often influenced in cases involving minorities," Gill told EWTN News, adding that equal and consistent implementation could turn the law into a "cornerstone for lasting change."

Report findings

The NCJP's position aligns with findings from its April 11 report, "Captive Souls: The Untold Story of Pakistan's Minority Girls," which documented multiple cases of alleged forced conversion and highlighted recurring issues such as social exclusion, abuse, financial exploitation, and weak legal documentation.

The report recommends a state-regulated conversion process overseen by magistrates, a ban on clerics and madrassas issuing independent conversion certificates, and strict enforcement of a minimum age of 18 for both marriage and religious conversion.

It notes that Pakistan currently has no legal minimum age for religious conversion, leaving a critical protection gap.

Matthais, however, remains skeptical about prospects for reform. "It's tough. The majority will resist such changes," he said, arguing that proposed safeguards for religious minorities often face ideological opposition.

Iqbal said work on regulating conversion practices must continue, though progress remains slow due to "sensitive majority sentiments" that require careful engagement and dialogue.

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The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to a nearly $1 billion settlement for victims of clergy abuse, one of the largest abuse settlements in U.S. Church history that comes after more than half a decade of litigation.

The New York-based law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates said in a press release on May 1 that the archdiocese had agreed with an abuse victims' committee to recommend a settlement of $800 million, which would be paid "into a trust for approximately 1,300 survivors who have brought sexual abuse claims" under the state's Child Victims Act.

The proposal will still be subject to "full survivor agreement" before it can be finalized, the law firm said.

The firm said the amount, if confirmed, would be paid in two installments of $615 million and $185 million within 15 months.

The archdiocese, meanwhile, will be required "to maintain their list of credibly accused clergy on their website and continue to update it with any new, substantiated abuse claims."

The agreement also would result in a "temporary stoppage" of litigation against the diocese regarding alleged abuse.

Attorney Jeff Anderson described the proposal as "a transcendent triumph of courage by the survivors who have endured so much for so long."

"It is far from full accountability, but it is a measure of responsibility and required transparency by the archdiocese that also requires the release of documents pertaining to sexual offenders," he said.

In a statement on May 1, meanwhile, New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the proposal.

"It cannot be denied that this has been a painful process — most significantly so for the victim-survivors and their families and loved ones who have suffered, in most cases, for decades," the prelate said.

"I pray that all of us, as the family of God, will come together to support and affirm these individuals and take these next steps to bring about some healing and peace," he added.

The nearly $1 billion payout would be among the largest in U.S. Church history. In October 2024 the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a slightly larger $880 million settlement.

The New York proposal, meanwhile, is considerably larger than an earlier reported proposed settlement of $300 million the diocese was said to be considering in December 2025.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan said at the time that the archdiocese had made "a series of very difficult financial decisions" to help fund the settlement, including staff layoffs and a 10% reduction in the archdiocese's operating budget.

The New York Archdiocese also has been engaged in a bitter dispute with its longtime insurer Chubb over payouts to victims. In February of this year, the archdiocese accused Chubb of running a "shadow campaign" against it by posing as a victims' rights group.

The archdiocese in 2024 launched a lawsuit against Chubb, claiming the insurer was "attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation" to pay out claims to abuse victims.

On May 1 lawyers for abuse victims said the proposed settlement also would allow victims "an opportunity to pursue recoveries from the Archdiocese of New York's insurance companies."

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