Point of Marriage without kids

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Lifeisbeautiful3

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What does a marriage mean for a person who can’t or won’t have more children?

For example, a widow who doesn’t want more kids.
 
If a couple is not open to even the possibility of new life, the marriage is de facto invalid.

Now, that said, a couple might be theoretically open to life but they may not be able to have children due to a flaw in their anatomy or because of advanced age. Such a couple can focus on enriching the lives of others through activities such as interacting with nieces and nephews or children in the community. In such cases, the marriage would still be valid if they are theoretically open to life.
 
Surely marriage between two people who don’t want to have children is still a wonderful form of commitment in the eyes of God and us.
 
It means I am better able to care for and love my spouse and the institution of marriage comes along with a legal framework of rights and responsibilities under civil law that supports that.
 
But we don’t promise to want children, we only promise to “accept children lovingly and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and His Church”. So as long as someone was sincere in that promise, despite not wanting children, and lived their marriage completely ordered toward procreation, I think the marriage would be perfectly valid.
 
1ke said:
Marriage is ordered to both procreation and unity of spouses. When the time and season of procreation is past, unity of spouses is still a primary end of marriage.
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Yes, and if a couple can’t have their own children, then it is THE primary end for them. Marriage is not just about children. For those who are married, it is also their means to achieve salvation.
 
No disrespect, but isn’t that a little silly for the couple in their 80’s getting married to eachother? Is the “be fruitful and multiply” business part of their wedding ceremony in the Catholic Church? Now that I think about it, I don’t believe I have attended a Catholic wedding of people past child-bearing years. What does happen during the ceremony?
 
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They’ll omit the question about accepting children. The couple needs to be theoretically ordered toward procreation but it is acceptable to marry knowing that it would be unlikely to result in a child.
 
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