All Topics  
Consummate

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Consummate
 
 
  Topics Consummate Topic Home

Consummation or consummation of a marriage, in many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, is the first (or first officially credited) act of sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which the Penis enters the Vagina. The two entities may be of opposite sexes or not, or they may be hermaphrodite, as is the case with snails....
 between two people, following their marriage to each other. Its legal significance arises from theories of marriage as having the purpose of producing legally recognized descendants of the partners, or of providing sanction to their sexual acts together, or both, and amounts to treating a marriage ceremony as falling short of completing the creation of the state of being married.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Consummate'
Start a new discussion about 'Consummate'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Consummation or consummation of a marriage, in many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, is the first (or first officially credited) act of sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which the Penis enters the Vagina. The two entities may be of opposite sexes or not, or they may be hermaphrodite, as is the case with snails....
 between two people, following their marriage to each other. Its legal significance arises from theories of marriage as having the purpose of producing legally recognized descendants of the partners, or of providing sanction to their sexual acts together, or both, and amounts to treating a marriage ceremony as falling short of completing the creation of the state of being married. Thus in some Western traditions, a marriage
Marriage

Marriage is a social, spirituality, or law union of individuals. This union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is usually called a wedding and the married status created is sometimes called wedlock....
 is not considered a binding contract until and unless it has been consummated.

(These formal and literal usages support informal and less precise usage of the word "consummation" to refer to a sexual landmark in relationship of varying intensity and duration.)

Within the Catholic Church
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, a marriage that has not yet been consummated, regardless of the reason for non-consummation, can be dissolved by the Pope
Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
. Additionally, an inability or an intention to refuse to consummate the marriage is probable grounds for an annulment
Annulment

Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage Void . Unlike divorce, it is retroactive: an annulled marriage is considered never to have existed....
. Catholic canon law
Canon law (Catholic Church)

Canon Law, the ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation....
 defines a marriage as consummated when the "spouses have performed between themselves in a human fashion a conjugal act which is suitable in itself for the procreation of offspring, to which marriage is ordered by its nature and by which the spouses become one flesh." Thus some theologians, such as Fr. John A. Hardon
John Hardon

John A. S. A. Hardon, S.J. was a Catholic priest, writer, and theologian. He is the founder of The Holy Trinity Apostolate.Hardon was born into a devout Catholic family in Midland, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania and raised in Cleveland, Ohio....
, state that intercourse with contraception does not consummate a marriage.

Several American colonies
Colonial America

The term colonial history of the United States refers to the history of the land that would become the United States from the start of European colonization of the Americas to the time of independence from Europe, and especially to the history of the thirteen colonies which declared themselves independent in 1776....
 practiced hand-fast marriages
Handfasting

Handfasting is a traditional Celts ceremony of betrothal or wedding.The term is derived from the verb to handfast, used in Middle English to Early Modern English for the making of a contract of marriage....
, verbal commitments undertaken in a public place by a man and woman, sexually consummated, and automatically becoming fully recognized marriages if she became pregnant within one year, but otherwise terminable at that point by their own action.

See also

  • Annullment
  • Nullity (conflict)
    Nullity (conflict)

    In Conflict of Laws, the issue of nullity in Family Law inspires a wide response among the laws of different state as to the circumstances in which a marriage will be valid, invalid or null....
  • Marriage
    Marriage

    Marriage is a social, spirituality, or law union of individuals. This union may also be called matrimony, while the ceremony that marks its beginning is usually called a wedding and the married status created is sometimes called wedlock....


External links