This research examines the role of the Catholic Church in the Brazilian Northeastern city of Recife with the advent of the Free Womb Law, in 1871. It delves into the complex dynamics of the Church and the children the law affected. That way, this research observes, on one hand, the support the Church offered to the Brazilian State, and on the other hand, its instances of resistance towards the changes the law intended to promote. In sum, this work expands current historiographical arguments that places the Church as a civil servant of the Brazilian Empire during the nineteenth century, as well as its relationship with childhood. It provides evidence of its difficulties to collaborate with the social changes the law was provoking by analyzing the attitudes of the brotherhood of the Holy House of Mercy of Recife, from 1870 to 1878.