dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Red Hot Catholic Love - At Twelve Years' Old

By The Daily Dish

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

The Dish was recently taken aback by a document emailed to us showing that the age of sexual consent in Vatican City was - wait for it - twelve years old. We didn't believe it. So we tried to nail down the precise facts. Here's the email we eventually got from the Italian embassy (the Vatican embassy wasn't, er, much help) regarding age of consent laws:

Vatican State has its own criminal system based on the former Italian criminal code (called “Zanardelli Code”, issued in 1889). Art 331 (1) of this code provides that the age of consent is set at 12 years old, but according to Art. 331 (2) when there is a relationship of dependence (like teacher/student/ etc.) the age of consent is 15 years.

This law applies to criminal suspects arrested in Vatican City. Whereas, if a sexual offence occurs in Vatican State but the suspect is arrested in Italy, he/she is tried under Italian criminal law, based on Italian Criminal code called “Rocco Code”, issued in 1930. According to article 609 quarter of this code, the age of consent is set at 14 years old or 16 years old if there is a relation of dependence. There is an exception to this rule: having sexual intercourse with a partner aged 13 doesn’t constitutes a sexual offence only if the age difference between the two individuals is not more than 3 years.

Should you need more information, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards,

Sara Porro

Matteo Orlando

Consular and Justice Affairs Office

Embassy of Italy

Here is a chart of ages of consent from around the world. The only other countries with an age as low as 12 are Angola, Mexico, Philippines, and Zimbabwe. The lowest age in the US is 14 (Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa). Here is a chart from a different source, with some discrepancies.

https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2010/02/red-hot-catholic-love-at-twelve-years-old/190085/

Vatican City raises age of consent from 12 to 18 following scandals

12 JUL 2013

Vatican City’s equal age of consent is being raised from 12 to 18 following the announcement of an overhaul of the Catholic Church’s criminal code by Pope Francis.

Francis has also ordered that Vatican City adopt international norms to prevent transnational criminal activities.

‘It is … necessary for the international community to adopt adequate legal instruments to prevent and counter criminal activities, by promoting international judicial cooperation on criminal matters,’ Francis said in a statement released by the Holy See yesterday.

‘In ratifying numerous international conventions in these areas, and acting also on behalf of Vatican City State, the Holy See has constantly maintained that such agreements are effective means to prevent criminal activities that threaten human dignity, the common good and peace.’

Until now Vatican City has had the lowest age of consent in Europe despite decades of child sex scandals within the church, while sex between people of the same sex has been legal in the city state since 1889.

Under the new rules, sex with a person under the age of 18, prostitution or possession of child pornography will be punished with up to 12 years in prison.

Previously such crimes would have been punished with a maximum sentence of 3 to 10 years.

However Francis has also made it a crime for agents of the church to leak Vatican information after Vatican butler to Pope Benedict XVI, Paolo Gabriele, leaked information about corruption within the Catholic church – potentially discouraging whistleblowers.

The US based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called the changes merely cosmetic.

‘While the headlines may proclaim “Pope makes new church rules about abuse,” the fine print makes it clear that there’s just one rule, and it purportedly makes more child sexual violence illegal on the 0.2 square miles of Vatican property,’ SNAP spokesman David Clohessy said.

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/vatican-city-raises-age-consent-12-18-following-scandals120713/