Correspondence obtained by The Irish Times reveals that the Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection wrote to the Bishops' Committee on Child Protection during the summer seeking its views on the age of consent, following the controversy on statutory rape.
At the weekend, a spokesman for the hierarchy accused the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, of being incorrect when he stated on RTÉ Radio's Saturday View programme that the bishops had been invited to make a submission to the Oireachtas committee.
The correspondence shows that on July 21st, the clerk of the committee wrote to the chairperson of the Bishops' Committee on Child Protection, John Morgan, inviting a submission on the age of consent issue.
Over a month later, on August 30th, the executive administrator of the Commissions and Agencies of the Irish Episcopal Conference, Harry Casey, replied saying that the Bishops' Committee on Child Protection would be standing down at the same time as the closure of the Bishops' Child Protection Office at Maynooth on September 15th.
"These actions are part of the pattern of developments which have followed the acceptance by each of the Bishops' Conference, Cori and the Irish Missionary Union of the document Our Children: Our Church. That document recommended the establishment of both a new National Board for Child Protection and a new National Office for Child Protection for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
"Your letter and enclosures have been forwarded to Mr Justice Anthony Hederman, chairperson of the new Board for Child Protection. I understand he will correspond with you directly," said the letter.
A week later, on September 7th, Mr Hederman wrote to the committee clerk, saying: "Thank you for inviting us to make a submission on the proposed orders for reference for the Joint Committee on Child Protection."
He went on to say that to give a positive contribution, the board would need to gather extensive and accurate statistics. He pointed out that the board had only recently been established and would have to confine its work to its own extensive programme.
"We wish you every success in your own important work and would be pleased to comment on your conclusions, if time permits," he said.
Government sources said last night that the Minister for Justice was very surprised that the bishops had contradicted him when the facts showed that they were given every opportunity to make a submission to the Oireachtas committee.
However, a spokesman for the hierarchy continued to maintain that the bishops had not been invited to make a submission to the committee. He said that the secretariat of the Irish Bishops' Conference and not the Commissions and Agencies of Irish Episcopal Conference was the body to which the invitation should have been addressed.
Following the recommendation of the Oireachtas committee over a week ago that the age of consent should be lowered from 17 to 16, the bishops expressed their "alarm" at the proposal.
"Children need to be protected not only from irresponsible adults but also from themselves, until they reach the age of maturity, now considered to be 18," they said in a statement following their three-day winter meeting at Maynooth.
The bishops said that they wished to register their "deep concern at the lack of any reference to the moral issues involved" in the committee report.
"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 wellbeing," they said.
In that context, lowering the age of consent to 16 sent 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 is something trivial, they said.
"Anything that would undermine the moral effort needed to preserve moral and physical integrity among teenagers must be resisted by any mature society," the bishops said.
The proposal to lower the age of consent also sent 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", they added.
