Marriage question concerning impotency / infertility

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billcu1

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I just have a question here. This is hypothetical and I am not going through anything, just curious. Can people who know beforehand that one of them can’t have kids be married in the church? As to whether or not just one or both is Catholic doesn’t matter of course.
 
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No expert on the “rules,” but I think you just have to open to having kids to have a Catholic marriage. There is no performance test.
 
Can’t have kids or can’t have sex? There’s a big difference.

If they are simply infertile, marriage is possible.
If a man is permanently impotent or a woman cannot, for whatever reason, ever have intercourse, they cannot be married.
 
If they didn’t know they were impotent (don’t even know if that’s possible but curious)?
 
Obviously if they didn’t know beforehand, they could get married. They are asked in the prenuptial investigation if they are able to have sex. If they knew they couldn’t and lied the marriage would be invalid.

However, if they didn’t know, the marriage would be valid but if it’s never consummated it could be dissolved.
 
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billcu1 said:
Can people who know beforehand that one of them can’t have kids be married in the church?
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Sure, women in their 50’s or older are married in the church all the time. If a gal has had a hysterectomy or other surgical procedure that makes them unable to have children, doesn’t disqualify them either.

Ditto for men who have had prostatectomies or other procedures that will make them infertile.
 
It is possible to know if one is incapable of being fertile. Long story short but I had tumors in my womb. It was either keep the tumors and be in constant pain or live and be more open to adopt. God Bless!
 
Yes, they can marry— infertility is not an impediment to marriage.

Your thread is titled “impotency” which is not the same thing as infertility.

Permanent antecedent impotency is an impediment.
 
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1ke said:
Yes, they can marry— infertility is not an impediment to marriage.

Your thread is titled “impotency” which is not the same thing as infertility.

Permanent antecedent impotency is an impediment.
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THIS is the correct answer.

I truly wish that people who do not know anything about what canon law actually says would stop trying to answer canon law questions. That helps no one.

And just to repeat: impotency and infertility are NOT the same thing.

Absolute antecedent impotency renders one incapable of marriage.

Absolute means “all the time” or completely, as opposed to only sometimes or only under some circumstances. (Let’s keep this family friendly).

Antecedent means before the marriage itself takes place (before consummation). In other words, impotency after-the-fact does not affect the marriage retroactively.
 
Nelka said:
I don’t remember having one of those.

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I remember having one, but there was no question about “able to have sex”. It may have been presented in a more subtle way. I think maybe prenuptial investigations have been made more detailed now than they were decades ago.
 
I remember having meetings alternately with priest and deacon and I remember the deacon talking about nfp (he was a grandfather).
 
While FrDavid96 and many national dioceses take a strong theoretic position on the impossibility of marriage re permanent antecedent impotency I do not believe the Church as a whole does so in practise…especially with the elderly.

The question is not on the papers in either explicit or subtle form in many parts of the world from my experience.

I have never heard of a priest denying remarriage to an elderly man on these grounds. We tend to give such the benefit of the doubt and it would be considered poor form to raise the topic without some reason other than simply advanced years.
 
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Can. 1084 §1. Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have intercourse, whether on the part of the man or the woman, whether absolute or relative, nullifies marriage by its very nature.

§2. If the impediment of impotence is doubtful, whether by a doubt about the law or a doubt about a fact, a marriage must not be impeded nor, while the doubt remains, declared null.

§3. Sterility neither prohibits nor nullifies marriage, without prejudice to the prescript of ⇒ can. 1098.
 
BlackFriar said:
The question is not on the papers in either explicit or subtle form in many parts of the world from my experience.
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I randomly pulled up prenuptial questionnaires from various US dioceses just now, and the question of ability to have sexual intercourse/impotency is on all of them.
 
They can be tested medically. Or they already had a necessary procedure that resulted in becoming infertile.
 
I see. I guess I probably should’ve worded the question as “impotency or infertility.” I think I was thinking more of simple infertility though. 🙂
 
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