Irish bishops have condemned government proposals to lower the age of sexual consent to 16.
The church leaders criticised an Oireachtas committee for sending out what they said was the wrong signal that engaging in sexual activity is something trivial.
Irish bishops
The 33 bishops from both north and south of the border spoke out for the first time the controversial issue that has divided public opinion.
After the general meeting by the Irish Episcopal Conference in Maynooth, they said children need to be protected not only from irresponsible adults but also from themselves, until they reach the age of 18.
The proposals, they claim, also send out the wrong signal to parents, who are themselves often confused as to how they should react in the face of their children's activities.
The bishops said they welcomed the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection, launched on November 30th, but recommend the proposals be subject to serious study and wide public debate.
"However, even at this stage, bishops wish to register their deep concern at the lack of any reference to the moral issues involved," they said.
"The question of child protection should not blind the public to the broader issues, such as the increase in teenage sexual activity and its consequences in terms of danger not only to their physical and psychological health, but also, and in particular, to their moral well-being.
"In this context, bishops view the lowering of the age of consent to 16 with alarm, as this sends out the wrong signal to a young generation who, under the influence of teenage glossy magazines, peer pressure, and binge drinking, feel engaging in sexual activity as something trivial.
"For Christians, sex is anything but trivial."
They said sex is sacred and is reserved for the loving, caring context of a life-long marriage, with sexual abstinence part of the moral preparation for the radical commitment that constitutes marriage.
"Anything that would undermine the moral effort needed to preserve moral and physical integrity among teenagers must be resisted by any mature society," they said.
Set up in the wake of the statutory rape crisis, the Child Protection Committee recommended the age of consent, presently 15 for boys and 17 for girls, be lowered to 16 years for both sexes.
Outlining major changes in sex cases involving children, it also included a zone of protection for youngsters, recommendations on how children should be treated by gardai and the courts, a law on grooming, and highlighted the need for a special protection of an age of consent of 18 for people in authority.
The committee, which included Minister for Children Brian Lenihan and Tánaiste Michael McDowell, was set up after the 1935 statutory rape law was found to be unconstitutional as it failed to give a defence of honest mistake as to the person's age.
It sparked outrage when a number of child sex offenders - including Mr A - were freed.
"We cannot but express our amazement that politicians and public opinion makers shy away from confronting the basic demands of morality, namely what is right and wrong," the bishops statement said.
"Until such time as morality is respected for what it is — the bedrock of personal integrity and of communal life — Irish society, in the midst of increasing material prosperity, will continue its downward descent into moral chaos where literally anything goes."
The Bishops also warned that society needs a moral revolution to replace a culture of violence with a renewed ethic of justice, responsibility and community.
They also called on the Government to urgently enact legislation designed to address the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation into this country.
"It is important that anti-trafficking legislation is framed so as to offer assistance to women in such circumstances and not be used to deport them back to their countries of origin," they said.
"Trafficked women are victims of a horrendous crime which involves being lured to travel abroad for a better life and then forced into a life of violence in prostitution.
"The human rights of these victims of crime must be a central part of anti-trafficking legislation, offering the women protection, medical, social and psychological assistance."
PA