Church: No Lay, No Way

Nine years ago, the Roman Catholic Church 86'd a couple's bid for a Catholic marriage because the man is impotent and canon law denies the holy order to the impotent. And now the groom-to-be, a Brazilian, is going to be the subject of a documentary.

A paraplegic man who was forbidden to get married in the Roman Catholic Church because he was impotent is the subject of a new documentary.

The Brazilian man, Hedir Antonio de Brito was two weeks away from marrying Elzimar de Lourdes Serafim, a widow, in August 1996, when he received a shocking letter from the local bishop denying their application for a marriage certificate.

According to canon law, any man or woman who is impotent and unable to have intercourse cannot get married.

Now who said the Church was anti-sex? It's just pro-procreation, I guess. So, if this guy and his fiancee just live together, would that be a sin? Does this law forbid post-menopausal women from marrying? After all, they can't have children. Does a priest interrogate couples who want to be married in a Catholic church? Do they ask for proof of potency? Do they make couples sign documents saying that they swear on the Bible to have lots of little Catholic progeny?