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I've always wondered how Catholics feel about that tidbit. It's yet another point of departure that Mormons seem to always gloss over in the attempt to mask how different their beliefs are from the (other?) Christian faiths.

Yes, and it's not like LDS apostles have steered clear of these things in more contemporary times:

...Christ was born into the world as the literal son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that ANY mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is NOTHING figurative about his PATERNITY; he was begotten, CONCEIVED, and born in the NORMAL and NATURAL course of events, for he is the Son of God, and that designation means what it says." (LDS apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966 ed., p. 742)

McConkie says a few times here that it was "natural" -- not supernatural. (And he's not simply talking about the "birth" of Christ for he specifically mentions "conceived...in the normal and natural course of events" and that God the Father was linked to this "literal...paternity").

Yeah, the ol McConkie book that was pulled from the shelves by the first presidency as non doctrinal. Here's what President Lee wrote concerning the specific issue shortly after the book came out.

January 2, 1969

Bruce Bracken
Logan, Utah 84321

Dear Brother Bracken:

We are very much concerned that some of our Church teachers seem to be obsessed of the idea of teaching doctrine which cannot be substantiated and making comments beyond what the Lord has actually said.

You asked about the Immaculate Conception of the birth of the Savior. Never have I talked about "sexual intercourse" between Deity and the mother of the Savior. If teachers were wise in speaking of this matter about which the Lord has said but very little, they would rest their discussion on this subject with merely the words which are recorded on this subject by Luke 1:34-35:

"Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

Remember that that being who brought about the Immaculate Conception was a divine personage. We need not question his method to accomplish his purposes. Perhaps we would do well to remember the words of Isaiah 55:8-9:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For us the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Let the Lord rest His case with this declaration and wait until he sees fit to tell us more.

Sincerely Yours

Harold B. Lee