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Old law, young age

Francis X. Rocca

Blogger Andrew Sullivan is having fun today with his discovery that the age of consent in Vatican City is only twelve years old.

But as his very post makes clear, the law in question was carried over from a 19th-century Italian criminal code, which reflects the norms and mores of a still pre-industrial society. Given the scarcity of children in the 108-acre city state, the Vatican evidently hasn’t seen the need to bring the law up to date.

For much the same reason, as this blog reported last year, no one in the Vatican saw the need until recently to enact any laws against possession of cocaine.


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