I think the question revolves more around the issue of contraception at the time the marriage is consummated, and not a question of a permanent intention to not have children.
I thought sacramental marriage was without bc? Really, Catholics are using bc?
Using birth control on the wedding night, while sinful, does not necessarily mean that the couple intends to not have children. In fact, I would imagine that 99.9% of married couples who use birth control DO intend to have children…just not right away.
This was not an assumption that the couple in the original question had no intention to have children, ever.What if the couple has sex once, then begins living “as brother and sister” for the rest of the time they are married?
No birth control, just no sex and no intention to have children.
Quite right; but, you’re looking at it a bit too fatalistically. Does the use of contraception ‘invalidate’ consummation? Certainly not, at least not in any permanent sense. However, does consummation occur if there is not genital penetration (I don’t need to be more explicit, do I?
) and ejaculation of true semen? No.What about it? I don’t understand your question.What if the couple has sex once, then begins living “as brother and sister” for the rest of the time they are married?
No birth control, just no sex and no intention to have children.
Perhaps we think we’re answering different questions, but it would seem that the correct answer is ‘no’, per canon 1061 §1. If the spouses have utilized contraception on their wedding night, they have not “in a human manner engaged together in a conjugal act in itself apt for the generation of offspring.”twf:
Yes.
If the bride, for example, has taken a contraceptive pill, but the groom finishes within her, I would think the conjugal act has still occurred in the “human manner” even if not under ideal circumstances.Perhaps we think we’re answering different questions, but it would seem that the correct answer is ‘no’, per canon 1061 §1. If the spouses have utilized contraception on their wedding night, they have not “in a human manner engaged together in a conjugal act in itself apt for the generation of offspring.”
Yes, they have. Vaginal intercourse meets this definition.Perhaps we think we’re answering different questions, but it would seem that the correct answer is ‘no’, per canon 1061 §1. If the spouses have utilized contraception on their wedding night, they have not “in a human manner engaged together in a conjugal act in itself apt for the generation of offspring.”
Yes. It would be presumed valid. Joesphite marriage can be undertaken under spiritual direction.
If the bride is on the ‘pill’, the act itself might be “in the human manner,” but, considering that she has chemically altered her reproductive system, that act is not “apt for the generation of offspring.” Therefore, no, an attempt at consummation in the presence of such contraception is not successful, by the very nature of contraception. See Beal, Coriden, and Green (2000), p. 1258, in which it is asserted that, “the choice of these words in this context and in accord with canonical tradition seems to require the interpretation that a conjugal act (or even numerous conjugal acts) performed while practicing some form of artficial birth control does not result in the consummation of marriage” (even though they assert that “1061 §1 should be emended so that the mind of the legislator is expressed clearly in language consonant with the canonical tradition”). To the best of my knowledge, such an emendation has not occurred. Can you point to anything that suggests otherwise?
I think in your example that their marriage is Catholically-valid, so it is consummated,
If your interpretation is correct, wouldn’t we have to assume that the vast majority of Catholic marriages, at least in the West, are in fact invalid, or at least not consummated? While the vast majority of couples are open to life (as in, they do intend and want to have children), it is without a doubt very likely that the majority of even Catholic couples contracept during the early stages of marriage…including on the wedding night.