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To: fwdude
So, Joseph took Mary as his wife but they weren’t really “married” until after Jesus birth when he actually had sexual relations with her?

The marriage wasn't consummated, but they were married. In Catholic doctrine, the marriage is consummated by relations, but even an unconsummated marriage is a true marriage as long as each member of the union agrees to abstain for a spiritual good. If either wants to consummate, the other party must comply or the marriage could be easily annulled. This is called a Josephite Marriage. In Wikipedia, it is under "spiritual marriage" (see below).

A feature of Catholic spiritual marriage, or Josephite marriage, is that the agreement to abstain from sex should be a free mutual decision, rather than resulting from impotence or the views of one party.

In senses beyond spiritual marriage, chastity is a key concept of Church doctrine that demands celibacy of priests, monks, nuns and certain other officials in the Church. The doctrine established a "spiritual marriage" of church officials to their church; in order to better serve God, one had to disavow the demands and temptations of traditional marriage. This rule was enforced by Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, whose marriage to Cunigunde of Luxemburg was also a very famous spiritual marriage.

The Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin professed to enter a spiritual marriage, but consummated a year later when directed by their confessor to do so.[1] Of their nine children the five who survived to adulthood all became nuns, including Saint Thérèse de Lisieux.

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13 posted on 10/15/2012 4:02:56 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("I love to watch you talk talk talk, but I hate what I hear you say."--Del Shannon)
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To: Dr. Sivana
This is called a Josephite Marriage.

That's a pretty neat invention. But it is just that - an invention. It cannot be found anywhere in Scripture.

Mary bore Joseph several sons according to scripture, having sexual relations with her UNTIL after the Son of God was born. There was no prohibition given to Joseph in his angelic dream to abstain permanently. So, even this invention doesn't apply to its namesake.

14 posted on 10/15/2012 5:34:25 AM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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