RE: Contractual obligations
March 23, 2012 at 8:06 pm
(This post was last modified: March 23, 2012 at 8:08 pm by Oldandeasilyconfused.)
Quote:Why is it that a marriage that is not consummated within a reasonable amount of time, can be annulled, while a death sentence that is not executed within a reasonable amount of time cannot?
Your question is a stawman,in the tradition of "they can send a man to the moon,why can't they cure the common cold?"
To answer anyway: under(Catholic) canon law there is no time limit. The grounds are "failure to consummate the marriage"
Quote:Within the Catholic Church, a marriage that has not yet been consummated, regardless of the reason for non-consummation, can be dissolved by the Pope.[1] Additionally, an inability or an intentional refusal to consummate the marriage is probable grounds for an annulment. Catholic canon law defines[2] 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, S.J., state that intercourse with contraception does not consummate a marriage.[3]
Under English law, a refusal or inability to consummate the marriage can be grounds for the wedding to be voided.[4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consummate
When I was 12,the Americans executed Caryl Chessman, after he had been on death row for 11 years. I was horrified by the barbarity of such an act,and have remained so. Solution? Catch up with the rest of the civilised world and abolish the death penalty. (I DO realise this is probably too much to ask of Texas)
