PRIESTS should continue marrying under age people and couples who do not fulfil the Governs new legal criteria on marriage according to a Catholic specialising in canon law.
Father Maurice Dooley, a professor of canon law at St Patrick's College, Thurles, Co Tipperary, said priests should assist at marriages with "tranquil consciences" even if they are breaking state law, as the Government's new laws on marriage were unreasonable, arbitrary and an invasion of human rights.
He said the new laws - raising the legal age for marriage to 18 and requiring three months' written notice to the State Registrar - interfered with people's right to marry and the church's "exclusive competence over the essentials of marriage of Catholics".
He said the church allowed girls to marry at 14 and boys at 16. The new law, which comes into effect on August 1st, contradicts canon law and the supreme authority of the church on marriage. Catholics should not regard themselves as subject to the new laws, which also threaten a £500 fine on couples or priests found in breach.
He said the requirement of three months' notice also contravened canon law. The bishops already request three months' notice from couples, but this differed from the State's "invalidation" of all marriages which did not give such notice or get an exemption from either the High Court or the Circuit Family Court. He said the church's three month regulation was to allow time for adequate counselling.
"But the State's regulation just imposes a purposeless delay which does nothing for the imprudent marriage and unnecessarily burdens the prudent one."
He said the right to marry was fundamental under canon law and could only be restricted for serious reasons. The Catholic Church claimed the "exclusive right" to deal with the marriage of Catholics and the State was once involved in the civil aspects, right to deal with the marriage of Catholics and the State was only involved in the civil aspects.
"It would seem the best course is to go along with the new law as far as possible, bothersome though it may be, in order to avoid trouble for the people intending to marry. But wherever fulfilment of the law would violate any person's fundamental right to marry in accordance with the law of God, the priest should go ahead with tranquil conscience and assist at the marriage."
He said breaches of civil law might be necessary in death bed marriages, hasty weddings of the "well prepared and prudent" where it had been impossible to get court exemptions and where the couples were under age.
Father Dooley said he preferred to see couples marrying in their mid 20s. But under age marriages should go ahead if the courts refused an exemption but the priest judged that the marriage fulfilled the church's laws.
A Catholic Church press office spokesman said there seemed to be a "meeting of minds" between the State and church to avoid young marriages.