The Problem of Sexual Intercourse in the matrimonium sub condicione Marriages

Abstract

Marriage is established by a mutual agreement expressed, in conformity with the law, by lawful parties, which may not be supplemented by any human authority. This agreement may be expressed unconditionally, but may also be expressed conditionally. Marriage with a qualification takes place when agreement is given in line with canon 1102 of the Code of 1983. A conditional marriage may take place when spouses, at the moment of getting married, do not know whether their marriage is valid or not. From the objective point of view, however, marriage is immediately valid or not at the time of its establishment, with respect to whether its condition is positively or negatively verified.

The fact that it is possible to establish a conditional marriage brings about some legal and moral difficulties. One of them is the right to sexual acts in the case of matrimonium sub conditione. The article presents some reasons in favour of a legal approval of sexual intercourse, pointing at the same time to concrete difficulties of moral nature. They are connected with sexual intercourse when the spouses are not assured that their marriage is valid. It seems that in the case of matrimonium sub conditione the spouses should be obliged to sexual temperance until they are assured that they are spouses at all.