Vatican age of consent

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I this discussions is going a wee bit overboard!

Yes, there technically is a difference between civil law age of consent, and canon law marriage age. But we’re talking about a less than 0.25 square mile city-state that is full of celibate men. I don’t think any children have been born there for a few hundred years (when it should have been filled celibate men!)

Basically, I think we’ve all used terminology sloppily because we’re simply reassuring the OP that there is nothing sinister about the age of consent age being “12” (if that website is even accurate :p)!
 
centurionguard said:
I have no qualms in how the Church sees it…but its certainly not indicative of maturity in a 16 year old teen-aged boy or a 14 year old teen-aged girl. Hardly what I would term as a mature man or woman since they both don’t meet the legal requirements of matrimony unless the parents give them away in marriage.

I for one have a little difficulty fathoming the logical reasoning as to why the Church mainstays this section of Canon Law in today’s ultra modern age Sexual Revolution.

Respectively how can a 16 year old boy and 14 year old girl truly understand the profound moral aspects of Holy Matrimony and the Self-Sacrificial Love that is incorporated within it.

Many Adults can’t figure it out.

Peace
Chris
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In this day and age, we consider marriage a right. And indeed marriage is not an institution that the state government should be deciding, as often they’ve been noted for various types of prejudicial behavior. However, if one needed to find a priest to get married along with the consent of parent, and the consent of the ‘youths’ freely given, it is not unfathomable that a fourteen year old female and a sixteen year old male could manage the maturity to set off on married life. With the complexity of life today, it is probably more difficult to achieve today than in the past. I assume the 12 is a leftover from civil law at the time, although possibly descriptive of Mary. In any case, the Pope would be able to decide, along with other bishops or additional magisterial persons, that a particular twelve year old could be married.

In a perfect world, it would be difficult to find a priest that would marry a fourteen year old girl to someone without their meeting high standards.
 
I’m not finding the actual link that says age of consent in the sources of Vatican law. Does anyone have a link to this specific law?
 
Man said:
In a perfect world, it would be difficult to find a priest that would marry a fourteen year old girl to someone without their meeting high standards.
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I’d like to think that, but there are still exceptional cases. When I was working at a restaurant in Springfield, Il., I catered a rehearsal dinner for a young couple - she was 14 or 15, he couldn’t have been any older. Shotgun wedding. No one smiled. Rotten tip.

Priests will often bend - and if they don’t, the family leaves and finds a minister willing to do so. The priest can only do so much to prepare a couple and, unless there’s a real concern over validity, I don’t think they can refuse to perform it. They can certainly be unhappy about it - the priest who married my cousin and his wife (he was 19, she was 21) expressed his feelings of the couple being unready during the homily.

At best, there are still some cultures where kids simply marry young and, because it’s expected, the families rise to the challenges. Betrothal in India, for example, still takes place though it is less and less common as more employment opportunities open up.
 
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