Q. Regarding Pope Francis’ recent comments that some people care more for pets than children, is it true that if a Catholic couple willingly chooses to exclude children from their marriage that it is a sacramentally invalid marriage?
A. The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes states that “The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by His laws.”
God established the reality of marriage as a natural institution, Christ His Son elevated marriage to a Sacrament, and the Church governs marriages in accord with the laws of God. The Church is not the ultimate authority governing marriage but has been entrusted by Christ to safeguard the Sacrament and ensure that marriages truly reflect the intention of God who from the beginning created man male and female and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply.
Marriage is “ordered by its nature to the good of spouses and the procreation and education of offspring” (c. 1055). This means that if either the man or the woman have an intention against children, meaning they absolutely exclude the intention to have children from the consent exchanged during the wedding ceremony, then they are intending a union that is not a marriage as established by God. In such a case the person is not consenting to a marriage, because marriage by its very nature includes an openness to children, and therefore the marriage would be invalid.
Absolutely excluding an intention to have children is very different from a married couple exercising what Pope St. Paul VI termed “responsible parenthood” which includes the possibility of spacing births of children by natural means. “If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which we have just explained.” (Humane Vitae N.16). The couple remains open to life and their marriage remains ordered to children, they just, for valid reasons, delay the conception of children.
It is important to remember that it is the openness to offspring that is the invalidating element, not whether or not there are any children born from the marriage. A married couple that struggles with fertility issues is in every way truly married. They intend their marriage to lead to children, but for reasons beyond their control, they are unable to do so. Their marriage remains ordered to the procreation of offspring in accord with the nature of marriage, they are unfortunately impeded from achieving that end.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
