Age of consent - Are children to be seen as ‘criminals’?

Speaking on behalf of the Catholic Hierarchy, Bishop Willie Walsh criticised a recent suggestion in the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection recommending the lowering of the age of sexual consent.

The bishop warmly welcomed most of the report but expressed a “serious concern” about lowering to 16 years the age of sexual consent between minors.

Bishop Walsh stated that it seems to him that legislators are following the lines that they are just in some way tidying up the legal side of things, because some teenagers are engaged in sexual activity. He says that politicians should afford leadership and be concerned about the moral, social and physical aspects of the issue.

Archbishop John Neill, the head of the Church of Ireland, speaking on behalf of his bishops, came out just as forcefully on the other side of the issue.

While he disagrees strongly with sexual activity among 16 year olds, he does not wish to see it criminalised. “We have to be somewhat realistic in making law,” Archbishop Neill argued. “We encourage and teach moral decisions but I would hate to see us enforcing it by law.”

Christianity distinguishes between the laws of man and the laws of God. Politicians have a duty to lead, but they must do so in a realistic manner. Unfortunately, as Bishop Walsh acknowledges, some 16-year-olds are sexual active. This raises the issue of whether such behaviour should be considered criminal and those 16-year-olds prosecuted as criminals?

That is the thorny issue that needs to be debated in a cold, rational manner.