Requirement Perpetuity for the Impediment of Impotence

The problem of the curability of impotence is a perennial one for ecclesiastical judges. It would seem that such a problem, medical in nature, would decrease in inverse ratio to the progress made by medical science over the years. By relying on the more precise testimony of their medical experts, judges of ecclesiastical courts, one would think, should be able to come to much more exact conclusions about the perpetual or temporary nature of the particular impotent condition in question. Rather quite the contrary has occurred. The problem of curability is even more acute than previously, for modern jurisprudence has seen its connection with questions beyond the boundaries of the impediment of physical impotence. Canon 1068, no. 1, of the Code of Canon Law determines the characteristics which the physical condition of impotence must have to be the diriment impediment of impotence: Impotentia antecedens et perpetua, sive ex parte viri sive ex parte mulieris, sive alteri cognita sive non, sive absoluta sive relative, matrimonium ipso naturae iure dirimit.