Catholic Church weighs legal challenge to new anti-conversion law in India

The new law in Indiaʼs most populous western state drew protests from civil society and Catholic leaders. Neighboring Goa dropped a similar measure.

Indiaʼs Maharashtra state enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law on Aug. 28, prompting Catholic leaders to call for prayer and a legal challenge. Nearby Goa shelved a similar bill days after its cabinet approved it.

The Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, passed by the state assembly in March under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government, took effect four days after 20 civil rights, secular, and Christian groups made a final plea for its repeal at a press conference in Mumbai, the state capital.

Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur, the winter capital of Maharashtra, responded by mandating recitation of the Memorare prayer after every Eucharistic celebration across his archdiocese beginning Aug. 31.

“Yes, the prayers are going on. We look forward to the judiciary since we in Maharashtra cannot expect a U-turn like in Goa,” Gonsalves told EWTN News on Sept. 2.

Goa backtracks

In neighboring Goa, the BJP governmentʼs cabinet approved an anti-conversion bill on Aug. 26 — making it the 14th Indian state to propose such legislation — but reversed course within a week and chose not to introduce the measure in the 40-member Goa Assembly.

The Indian Express reported that the government shelved the bill after strong protests by the Catholic Church and internal opposition from seven Catholic legislators within the BJP-led government, which holds 26 seats.

Christians, the vast majority of them Catholic, account for about a quarter of Goaʼs roughly 1.5 million people. The former Portuguese colony has a distinctive Catholic cultural identity dating back centuries.

The proposed bill “risks irreparably damaging that precious inheritance by replacing mutual trust with suspicion and social harmony with surveillance and fear,” said a joint statement by the Council for Social Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church and the Catholic Association of Goa, a lay forum.

Legal challenge in Maharashtra

In Maharashtra, civil society groups have signaled that the courts are the remaining avenue of redress after the law took effect.

“The government does not bother about our concerns,” Dolphy DʼSouza, one of the coordinators of the Joint Civil Society network, told EWTN News.

“The only option before us now is to approach the judiciary as the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act infringes fundamental freedom of faith guaranteed under the constitution,” said DʼSouza, a spokesperson for the Bombay Catholic Sabha, a lay council using the cityʼs former name.

The joint civil society coalition said the act “creates an unparalleled intrusive system of state surveillance over matters of personal faith, marriage, and individual choice.”

The Western Region Bishops Council had warned ahead of the billʼs passage that the law, “far from safeguarding religious freedom … effectively undermines the very right it claims to protect, i.e., the freedom to choose and profess oneʼs religion, as guaranteed under Articles 19, 21, and 25 of the Constitution of India.”

The bishops’ council said sections of the legislation “amount to a direct and unjustified interference in the legitimate religious practices of the Catholic Church, particularly its Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program.”

The law mandates that anyone intending to convert submit notice to a designated authority 60 days in advance — a provision the bishops said “intrudes deeply into the personal domain of conscience and belief, opening the door to scrutiny, suspicion, and harassment.”

‘Consent forms’

Meanwhile, some Christian groups in Maharashtra have made headlines by asking congregation members to sign “consent forms” when attending church services, apparently in response to the new lawʼs requirements.

“The Catholic Church is not doing anything of this sort anywhere in Maharashtra,” DʼSouza said.

Christians number less than 1% of Maharashtraʼs population of more than 120 million.

The constitutional validity of similar anti-conversion laws enacted in other Indian states is under challenge before the Supreme Court of India, according to the press note from the civil society press conference.