Menopausal intercourse

[honorspianist]

i understand that the church forbids the use of contraceptives for (among others) the specific reason that they close off the congugal act to the creation of life. my question is in regards to a post-menopausal woman. a woman who is post-menopausal cannot conceive a child, and thus sex between her and a fertile man would be closed off to the creation of life, intrinsically. is this a loophole, or is there a reason why menopausal sex is not considered by the church to be a closing-off of the sexual act?

 

[Viki59]

It is not considered a closing off to life, as there is always the chance of an action on the part of God which results in life, as in the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah.

More than one child has been born after it was thought impossible.

 

[DailyBread]

Another way to look at it is that contraception is a deliberate action to inhibit the gift of one’s fertility from being given to their spouse, purposefully with holding part of themselves. Menopause on the otherhand is a biological process set by nature so it is not a purposeful denial of one’s being to the other.
An analogy might be to consider a poor and a rich couple with kids. Both are required to take care of the kids. If the rich couple refused to provide shelter or clothing to their kids when they clearly could afford it, we would say that was mean and wrong. If the poor couple wish they could do the same, but did not have the means to do that we would say its a tragedy, but not that they did anything wrong. The rich couple can, but refuses, while poor couple cannot, but wishes they could. So it is with fertile couple who either one or both purposefully refuse to offer the gift of fertility (part of their sexual beings) to the other while the infertile or menopausal couple does not have that gift to offer, so they are not denying themselves to the other. Hope that makes sense.

 

[1ke]

i understand that the church forbids the use of contraceptives for (among others) the specific reason that they close off the congugal act to the creation of life. my question is in regards to a post-menopausal woman. a woman who is post-menopausal cannot conceive a child, and thus sex between her and a fertile man would be closed off to the creation of life, intrinsically. is this a loophole, or is there a reason why menopausal sex is not considered by the church to be a closing-off of the sexual act?

Contraception **alters **the act of intercourse.

Every act of unaltered intercourse between spouses is objectively procreative, even if it is subjectively infertile.

Female bodies were not designed to be fertile every moment of every day. Therefore, if the intercourse is engaged in as God designed it then it is objectively a procreative act.

There is no contradiction or loophole.

 

[thistle]

i understand that the church forbids the use of contraceptives for (among others) the specific reason that they close off the congugal act to the creation of life. my question is in regards to a post-menopausal woman. a woman who is post-menopausal cannot conceive a child, and thus sex between her and a fertile man would be closed off to the creation of life, intrinsically. is this a loophole, or is there a reason why menopausal sex is not considered by the church to be a closing-off of the sexual act?

Such a couple are still open to life. Nothing is impossible for God. Remember Sarah, the wife of Abraham who gave birth to Isaac, and Elizabeth the wife of Zechariah who gave birth to John the Baptist. Both were old women!