Decriminalising sexual activity among minors

The public debate on decriminalising consensual sexual activity among minors raises serious moral, pastoral, and legal concerns. The Church welcomes sincere efforts to protect children from unnecessary criminalisation, stigma, and trauma. At the same time, fidelity to the Gospel requires the Church to speak clearly when proposed solutions risk weakening protections for the young or obscuring fundamental truths about the human person and sexuality.

From Scripture onward, sexuality is not morally neutral. Sexual union belongs within the covenant of marriage, where love is faithful, exclusive, and life-giving. Fornication and adultery are named as sins, not out of hostility to the body, but because they separate sexuality from its meaning as a total gift of self. These moral boundaries are especially protective of the young, safeguarding them from being reduced to objects of desire or experimentation.

Saint Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 6:13–20 remains decisive: “ The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord.” The body belongs to Christ, is destined for resurrection, and is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Sexual acts are therefore never merely private choices; they shape the person at the deepest level of identity and dignity. Treating adolescent sexual behaviour as morally insignificant risks forming consciences detached from truth and responsibility.

Central to Christian moral teaching is the personalistic norm: a person must never be used as a means, but always loved as an end. Created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27), every person deserves protection from exploitation. Authentic consent requires maturity, freedom, and protection from pressure, conditions that cannot be presumed, especially where age gaps widen or social realities expose young people to coercion.

The Church acknowledges the strain placed on Jamaica’s Child Diversion Programme and the harm caused when peer-to-peer cases between minors are unnecessarily brought before the courts. Carefully defined diversion into counselling, education, and family support may be appropriate in genuinely consensual cases between minors close in age. However, proposals that extend decriminalisation to relationships between minors s12–14 years and persons up to five years older cross a serious safeguarding threshold. Such measures risk normalising exploitation, obscuring power imbalances, and creating loopholes that predators could exploit, particularly in vulnerable communities.

Law does more than regulate behaviour; it forms conscience and signals societal values. Grace does not abolish moral truth but strengthens the person to live it. The Church therefore urges policies that uphold the age of consent, prioritise safeguarding, strengthen families, expand age-appropriate education, and ensure compassionate, trauma-informed care, while never weakening the legal protections owed to the young and vulnerable.

Most Rev. Kenneth D. Richards, DD, CD. Archbishop of Kingston, Jamaica