Is it true that you cannot get married if known to be impotent?

[norbert]

Steve Andersen:

I don’t now but I’ve been told that if you can’t satisfy your partner’s needs you are in essence leading them into temptation by not providing them with a viable alternative.

But what if both partners are accepting of the other’s inability to perform and not expecting or desiring anything else? Again, take my 80 year-old couple, who just want the companionship and the comfort of a life partner. Heck, maybe they just want a civil marriage (maybe a civil union); would that be OK?

And, Steve, if you (not you personally) can’t satisfy your “partner’s needs,” why would you be responsible for their sin? If my wife doesn’t heed my call for action whenever I demand it, is she responsible for my sin if I decide to go out and cheat on her?

 

[Steve_Andersen]

norbert:

But what if both partners are accepting of the other’s inability to perform and not expecting or desiring anything else?

Well that is easy enough to say but life is long and the flesh is the flesh… so it seems prudent to have a back up plan

norbert:

Again, take my 80 year-old couple, who just want the companionship and the comfort of a life partner.

That bit about “if the impediment of impotence is doubtful” quoted above by Benedictus sort of answers that question
No one is likely to challenge Grandpa to prove that he’s up to the task

I think even the most pessimistic 80 year old would like the benefit of the doubt
problem solved

norbert:

Heck, maybe they just want a civil marriage (maybe a civil union); would that be OK?

Well if you’re getting married outside of the church then the point is moot

norbert:

And, Steve, if you (not you personally) can’t satisfy your “partner’s needs,” why would you be responsible for their sin?

Well, in theory, you are supposed to love and support your spouse. So while she makes her own choices these don’t occur in a vacuum.
and putting her in a bad situation is…bad

norbert:

If my wife doesn’t heed my call for action whenever I demand it, is she responsible for my sin if I decide to go out and cheat on her?

That isn’t what I said; there is a difference between “now or else” and “now or maybe later”.

While your spouse saying no tonight is fine. If she said no night after night, month after month, year after year that could be a problem. (and there is a difference between not being willing and not being able)

Also, remember that this is logically consistent with other Church teachings… they don’t put any bars on sexual activity within marriage as long as it ends in a “procreative manner” (I think that is how that is phrased) so it doesn’t take much of an imagination to realize that a whole range of techniques are, in theory, forbidden to the impotent.

So even if even if your spouse doesn’t go outside the marriage, just using some other way to satisfy her is problematic to some.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Steve Andersen:

I don’t now but I’ve been told that if you can’t satisfy your partner’s needs you are in essence leading them into temptation by not providing them with a viable alternative.

I suppose outsourcing would be out of the question?

 

[Steve_Andersen]

AlanFromWichita:

I suppose outsourcing would be out of the question?

depends on who the new Pope is

 

[tuopaolo]

The reason why you can’t validly marry (whether it be a sacramental marriage or a natural marriage) when you (male or female) are permanently impotent is because the exchange of consent necessary for a valid marriage (whether sacramental or natural) involves exchanging the right to marital congress. If one is unable to engage in marital congress with someone one can’t exchange the right to it as one can’t give someone a right to something which is impossible to obtain or believed to be impossible to obtain … for instance I can’t give you a right to a billion dollars if I don’t have a billion dollars and there’s no possibility that I will obtain a billion dollars.

 

[chevalier]

If I understood correctly, a bishop on Catholic Answers Live just said that if you are known to be impotent and for sure that you will never conceive, then you cannot get married if you know this before hand? YIKES???

Impotent: can’t marry if judged permanent.
Infertile: can marry. Doesn’t matter if it seems to be permanent.