Press release
Legal age of marriage in England and Wales rises to 18
From: Ministry of Justice and The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP
Published 27 February 2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/legal-age-of-marriage-in-england-and-wales-rises-to-18
Vulnerable children across England and Wales will be better protected from the damaging impact of forced marriage as the legal age of marriage rises to 18 in England and Wales.
The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022, which gained Royal Assent in April last year, has come into force today (27 February). It means that 16 and 17 year olds will no longer be allowed to marry or enter a civil partnership, even if they have parental consent.
It is now illegal and a criminal offence to exploit vulnerable children by arranging for them to marry, under any circumstances whether or not force is used. ... Those found guilty of arranging child marriages face sentences of up to 7 years in prison.
Do Catholics agree that there should be a definite age for marrying, below which it is forbidden? Yes.
Suppl. Question 58. The impediments of impotence, spell, frenzy or madness, incest and defective age
Article 5. Whether defective age is an impediment to marriage?
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/5058.htm#article5
However, do we agree that 18 / 18 is that limit? No.
Quoting the link:
I answer that, Since marriage is effected by way of a contract, it comes under the ordinance of positive law like other contracts. Consequently according to law (cap. Tua, De sponsal. impub.) it is determined that marriage may not be contracted before the age of discretion when each party is capable of sufficient deliberation about marriage, and of mutual fulfilment of the marriage debt, and that marriages otherwise contracted are void. Now for the most part this age is the fourteenth year in males and the twelfth year in women: but since the ordinances of positive law are consequent upon what happens in the majority of cases, if anyone reach the required perfection before the aforesaid age, so that nature and reason are sufficiently developed to supply the lack of age, the marriage is not annulled. Wherefore if the parties who marry before the age of puberty have marital intercourse before the aforesaid age, their marriage is none the less perpetually indissoluble.
The Canon Law of 1917 raised this from 14 / 12 to 16 / 14.
Crown Prosecution Service of the UK, on Sexual offences, states, among other things:
Child sexual abuse
A child is defined as any person under the age of 18. Child sexual abuse involves forcing or inciting a child to take part in sexual activity, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening and not necessarily involving a high level of violence.
This may involve physical contact including rape or oral sex, or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or exploiting or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet) or prostitution. Child sexual abuse can be committed by both men and women, or other children.
The problem is, co-education, rock'n'roll, pop or other musical styles, lots of cinema and especially TV, and a good nourishment makes it nearly guaranteed that a "child" in England and Wales, as defined in these contexts, will have sexual urges. Not all children, but those above puberty age.
The lack of marriage, the lack of possibility to have fairly normal sex and make babies while waiting for marriage, makes for uneasy situations that can be exploited by precisely groomers. It also makes for depression, self hate and that sometimes to the extent of so called gender dysphoria. And sometimes homosexuality comes as a milder form of it.
A teacher who gives sex education and does not engage in sexual activity with the teens under 18 (or who are his pupils, even if above 18) himself is probably fairly safe, both as to himself, and as to what he allows. He can become a kind of inverted chaperon. This encourages a kind of power play which can glide into actual abuse. It sometimes does.
Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
VIII Lord's Day After Pentecost
23.VII.2023
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