Can you get married if you are infertile?

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1ke:
It is gift to whom it is given. It is not given to everyone. CCC 1652:

“**By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring **and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory.” Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: “It is not good that man should be alone,” and “from the beginning [he] made them male and female”; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.
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I don’t think offspring have to come from marriage. Sarai didn’t have children till much later in her life. If she would have died without having children to Abram, would she then be breaking the marriage? My wife and I are a unit - one flesh - as we both agree. Children are simply a welcome addition to the family already created when marriage vows were taken.

Peace…
 
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1ke:
Finish the sentence and you will see that it IS in Scripture:

“… and the two shall become one flesh.” God ordained marriage to be the one flesh union between man and woman. To be one flesh requires sexual intercourse.
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But, my friend, there are always exceptions, aren’t there? I could give you many “what if’s”. For example, a person crippled and paralyzed (male) from the waist down potentially cannot perform the sexual act (say, Christopher Reeve) and what you are saying is that they should perhaps get a divorce? I don’t understand. Are there no merciful circumstances in which the “Church” deems such a marriage fit to continue or to even be started to begin with?

Peace…
 
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Viki59:
Here’s a What if for you:
What if two people, one of whom is impotent because of a disability, get married in a Protestant church, go on to adopt children, and several years later convert to the Catholic church. If they have their marriage convalidated, is it valid? (Before you say, of course it’s valid because it’s been convalidated, it was only done because the priest was under the impression they could have relations, when they couldn’t.)
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You haven’t given a reason for the convalidation in your “what if”. If the impotence isn’t known to the priest, then there is no reason to suspect the marriage is invalid, and thus no obvious reason for the convalidation.

The imediment of impotence comes from divine law, and applies to everyone, not just Catholics.
 
I say yes you can. God can decide to allow pregnancy even in very unlikely cases. I have a friend that only conceived once, but did have one child. She also adopted one. Her husband was told he was most likely never going to be able to father a child. God can change that . So fertile or not, our expression of love does not have to lead to pregnancy as long as we aren’t preventing pregnancy.
 
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ahimsaman72:
But, my friend, there are always exceptions, aren’t there? I could give you many “what if’s”. For example, a person crippled and paralyzed (male) from the waist down potentially cannot perform the sexual act (say, Christopher Reeve) and what you are saying is that they should perhaps get a divorce? I don’t understand. Are there no merciful circumstances in which the “Church” deems such a marriage fit to continue or to even be started to begin with?

Peace…
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Impotence has bearing on contracting a valid marraige, not on an existing valid marriage.
 
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ahimsaman72:
I don’t think offspring have to come from marriage.
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I did not say that they did. Marriage is objectively ordered to procreation, and it is the supreme end of marriage. Children are a gift from God-- God opens and closes the womb.

And, the one-flesh union is a physical union accomplished by physcial sexual intercourse.
 
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1ke:
Impotence has bearing on contracting a valid marraige, not on an existing valid marriage.
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So, a paralyzed man who couldn’t possibly perform the sexual act cannot contract a marriage validly? Just want to be clear here.
Thanks.

Peace…
 
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ahimsaman72:
So, a paralyzed man who couldn’t possibly perform the sexual act cannot contract a marriage validly? Just want to be clear here.
Thanks.

Peace…
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Correct. Impotence is an impediment to marriage.
 
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