[TomSmedley]

* Are you suggesting that the perpetual virginity of Mary would mean she treated Joseph Unjustly?

How is such an idea compatible with Mary's freedom from Sin?

That IS the corner you seem to have backed yourself into, my dear sister, and highly esteemed fellow saint. BTW -- I'd appreciate your prayers for my employment situation -- just finished another round of interviews.

[adiaireton8]

So since you reject the Fifth Ecumenical Council's teaching on Mary's perpetual virginity, why then do you accept the Ecumenical Creeds?

That IS the corner you seem to have backed yourself into, my dear sister, and highly esteemed fellow saint.

Your assumption that couples must engage in sexual relations with one another is the false assumption. Paul even points this out in 1 Cor 7:5, where his qualification concerning married couples abstaining "for a time" is still "by way of concession, not of command". The 'duty' of engaging in sexual relations with one's spouse depends upon the state of the spouse. If a husband and a wife both desire to consecrate themselves to the Lord and give up sexual relations, then they have no overriding duty to engage in sexual relations with each other. And thus Mary and Joseph did not sin by never having sexual relations.

-A8