Article II: Impotence

102. • I. Notion.

The best definition seems to be that given by St. Raymond of Pennafort, O.P.¹

¹ Summa, l. 4, De impotentia coeundi, § 2, apud Prummer, op. cit., n. 808.

Impotence is "the impossibility of coition, or a defect of soul or body or of both, by which someone is impeded from being carnally commingled with another (in the natural manner)."

a) It is called the impossibility of coition, not the impossibility of generating.

Perfect coition is had when the male member enters the vaginal canal of the woman and pours forth true semen within the vaginal canal. Whenever coition can be completed, true potency must be acknowledged.

b) It is called a defect of soul or body or of both.

Thus are indicated the diverse spiritual or corporeal causes from which impotence can arise. Among spiritual causes there frequently occurs hatred or aversion toward the spouse. The older authors wrote at great length concerning malefice as a cause of impotence. But modern authors judge that a diabolical cause of impotence is to be admitted very rarely and with difficulty. Spiritual causes rarely produce perpetual impotence.

II. Who, in the concrete, are impotent.²

² Capello, op. cit., nn. 348, 350, 375.

103. • A man is impotent:

1. lacking the virga, or male member.

2. lacking both testicles.

3. affected by perpetual atrophy of both testicles.

4. suffering from a defect of the virga which renders the pouring forth of semen into the vaginal canal impossible, i.e., when the meatus is opened not at the extremity of the virga, but in its middle, whether in the inferior part (hypospadias) or in the superior part (epispadias).

5. having a virga too large or too small (often only relative impotence, sometimes absolute).

6. whose virga cannot be erected for completing copula (anaphrodisia).

7. who suffers from excessive venereal excitation, by which it happens that he always pours forth semen before copula (aphrodisia).

The two latter defects rarely constitute absolute and perpetual impotence.

104. • b) A woman is impotent:

1. lacking a vaginal canal.

2. whose vaginal canal is wholly closed, so that it cannot in any way be opened.

3. whose vaginal canal is too narrow, absolutely or relatively.

4. suffering from vaginismus, by which, from excessive excitation, the vulva is closed, impeding copula.

In the two former cases impotence is absolute; in the third and fourth, absolute or relative.

105. • c) What concerning a man who has undergone vasectomy?

1. Vasectomy for a man is the resection of the canal carrying semen elaborated by the testicles to the seminal vesicles, by which it happens that ejaculation of semen is wholly impossible.

He who has undergone this operation is able to erect the member, to enter the female vessel, and in it to pour forth a certain watery humor secreted by the prostate, but he cannot emit true semen.

2. Nearly all authors admit true impotence in a man who has undergone vasectomy, because for perfect coition the effusion of true semen is required.

But whether such impotence is perpetual or temporary, they do not agree. The whole question is placed in this: whether the interrupted communication with the seminal vesicles can be restored. Some affirm and some deny.

106. • d) A woman lacking a uterus or ovaries or both organs is not impotent, but only sterile.

The reason is obvious: for nothing is lacking to such a woman for completing conjugal copula.

And this opinion is strengthened by several responses of the Sacred Congregations of the Holy Office and of the Discipline of the Sacraments, which declare that matrimony is not to be interdicted to a woman of this kind.³

³ S. Off., 3 Feb. 1887; 23 Jul. 1890; 31 Jul. 1895; S. C. de Sacram., 12 Apr. 1909.

A fortiori the same must be held concerning a woman who has undergone an operation similar to vasectomy.

107. • III. Division.

a) Impotence is antecedent or consequent, according as it preexists or supervenes upon the celebration of matrimony.

b) It is perpetual if it can be removed by no human manner, or only by illicit or gravely dangerous means; or temporary if it can cease by a human means, licit and not gravely dangerous.

c) It is natural or accidental, according as it arises from a defective conformation of the body or from an extrinsic cause, e.g., a surgical operation, injury, disease.

d) It is absolute, i.e., existing with respect to every person, or relative, which is restricted to a determinate person.

e) It is organic, which arises from a physical defect of the organs, or functional, which arises from a merely physiological defect.

f) It is certain or doubtful.

108. • IV. When impotence dirimently impedes matrimony.

"Antecedent and perpetual impotence, whether on the part of the man or on the part of the woman, whether known to the other party or not, whether absolute or relative, is a diriment impediment of matrimony from the natural law itself." (Can. 1068, § 1.)

The reason is ready to hand: no one can validly enter a contract concerning an impossible thing. But an impotent person cannot complete copula. Therefore he cannot validly hand over the right to it.

109. • V. Doubtful impotence before matrimony.

a) One who positively doubts whether he is potent cannot contract matrimony before he has resolved the doubt by diligent investigation as far as he can. Otherwise he exposes himself both to the danger of contracting an invalid matrimony and to the danger of gravely deceiving the other party.

b) If the doubt continues after diligent investigation, he can licitly enter matrimony, provided that he warns the other party concerning the doubt.

"If the impediment of impotence is doubtful, whether by a doubt of law or by a doubt of fact, matrimony is not to be impeded." (Can. 1068, § 2.)

For there prevails the right naturally belonging to anyone of contracting matrimony, until the impediment appears certain.

110. • VI. Doubtful impotence known after matrimony.

a) While some hope of completing coition remains, the spouses can attempt copula, even though semen is poured forth outside the vessel contrary to intention.

b) The spouses are bound to apply suitable remedies. They can also seek, as a precaution, even if the other party dissents, a dispensation concerning a ratified and non-consummated matrimony, provided that non-consummation can be proved.

c) If remedies have been applied in vain, and there is danger of incontinence or scandal, let the spouses be separated.

111. • VII. Certain impotence detected after matrimony.

a) 1. If impotence is at once antecedent and perpetual, there is altogether no matrimony, and therefore the putative spouses are immediately to be separated as to bed, or even as to cohabitation, scandal being excluded.

But if there is grave danger of sinning, separation also as to cohabitation is necessary.

If, however, scandal is present, separation from cohabitation requires the intervention of ecclesiastical authority.

It pertains to the ecclesiastical judge to give sentence of nullity after proof of the impediment, and then the party free from impotence can enter a new marriage.

If grave danger of incontinence and scandal is absent, and separation is morally impossible, the putative spouses can cohabit as brother and sister.

2. Nothing is licit to putative spouses which is not licit to the unmarried.

b) 1. If impotence is antecedent but temporary, the matrimony is valid and the spouses are not to be separated.

2. But as to the use of matrimony:

1. if some hope is present of completing the conjugal act, they can attempt it.

2. if hope is not present, they must abstain from acts which generate a proximate danger of pollution in the other spouse.

3. even in the case in which the completion of coition is impossible or gravely harmful to the woman, it is not licit for the man to pour forth semen at the opening of the vaginal canal, whatever one or the other may have said.

c) If impotence is consequent, even though perpetual, the matrimony remains altogether firm. As to its use, the same things hold which we have just said under b).

112. • IX. Practical warning. [Printed as IX; probably VIII.]

Often it is expedient that the pastor or confessor leave in good faith those whom he has found invalidly joined under the head of impotence. For worse evils more often flow from admonition. It is otherwise if the putative spouses themselves know that the matrimony is null.