Is this marriage consumated?

[dumspirospero]

I know a couple must have intent to have children in order for the marriage to be considered valid in the eyes of the Church. What if a couple, due to some biological problem such as low sperm count, is not able to have a child? They try and try…but are never able to have a child. Is that marriage consumated and considered valid?

 

[Jim_Blackburn]

The marriage was consummated with their first “try”. Code of Canon Law states, “A valid marriage between the baptized is called ratum tantum if it has not been consummated; it is called ratum et consummatum if the spouses have performed between themselves in a human fashion a conjugal act which is suitable in itself for the procreation of offspring, to which marriage is ordered by its nature and by which the spouses become one flesh” (CIC 1061 §1).