Do contraceptives prevent consummation?

[Roguish]

Dear apologist:

According to the Church, a marriage is not consummated until the husband and wife unite in the conjugal act. Furthermore, it teaches that the use of contraceptives is a sin, and therefore forbidden. (And I agree with both points.)

It seems to follow then, that if a man and woman participate in the Church’s marriage ceremony and then proceed to have intercourse with the use of a contraceptive, their marriage has not been consummated, and is therefore not valid.

One could argue against this that the conjugal act would still constitute a consummation even if performed with a contraceptive, but that they would be committing a sin at the same time. This would be a dubious defense though: it practically equates to saying that it is possible for the conjugal act to be sacramental and sinful at the same time.

Can you clarify?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

We need first to sort out a couple of issues. Lack of consummation does not render a marriage invalid, consent makes a valid marriage. Consummation renders it indissoluble (canon 1141). Therefore even if contraception did not fulfill the Church’s understanding of consummation the marriage would still be valid (1061 §1).

As far as I am aware, the Church has never definitively answered whether a contraceptive act qualifies as consummation. Currently the Canon Law Society of America’s Commentary on Canon Law notes:

The consultors who discussed the canons favored the notion that natural sexual intercourse constituted consummation and that the use of contraceptives did not prevent true completion of the act as long as the device did not interfere with the physical act of intercourse.

[Commentary on canon 1061 (1985, Canon Law Society of America), p. 745]

An opposing view by theologians E. Christian Brugger and William E. May can be found here.

As for an action being sacramental and sinful, that would not invalidate the sacrament. An unholy priest still validly performs sacraments (ex opere operato) and someone in mortal sin still receives confirmation (but not its graces until confession).