Marital Embrace - procreative but always unitive?

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The Church teaches that every marital embrace should be open to procreation and should be unitive.

Does anyone know if this has always been the case?

Specifically was there ever a time - possibly before Vatican II that the Church did not teach or emphasize the unitive aspect of the marital embrace?

I have heard ancedotal references that the procreative aspect alone was taught but I am looking for Church documents that would prove or disprove this.
 
The ancient formula used by Saint Augustine and Saint Aquinas is:
proles, fides, sacramentum.
  1. proles (offspring, i.e. the procreative meanining of marital relations)
  2. fides (the fidelity of the couple, which can be understood to refer to the unitive meaning)
  3. sacramentum (the marital meaning)
Jesus also implied that there is a unitive meaning:

[Matthew]
{19:6} And so, now they are not two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.”

The unitive meaning is also implicit in the teachings of Paul that the husband is the head of his wife (which implies that they are one).

[1 Corinthians]
{11:3} So I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. But the head of woman is man. Yet truly, the head of Christ is God.
 
Thank you for the above replies - they were very helpful.

However I would like to elaborate on my initial question.

I recently had a conversation with some older relatives of mine (women in their 60’s to 90’s) and the topic of infertility treatments came up.

I explained that artificial insemination with the husband’s sperm was not an option allowed for infertile Catholic couples.

The two problems being first how the sperm was obtained - if it was done through masturbation and secondly because the act would not be unitive, (i.e. husband and wife in different rooms).

My relatives seemed very perplexed about the unitive aspect of the marital embrace and all of them - all cradle Catholics - stated that they had never heard about this before.

In fact a few implied that this requirement must have come about only after Vatican II and that in the past the Church has taught that procreation along was the goal of all marital embraces.

Is this true?

.
 
Callen said:
In fact a few implied that this requirement must have come about only after Vatican II and that in the past the Church has taught that procreation alone was the goal of all marital embraces. Is this true?
Click to expand...
No, it is not true.

Pope Pius XII’s Address to Midwives
papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12midwives.htm
places the end of procreation first, but does not deny other ends, such as the “reciprocal gift and possession of the married couple in joy and delight” and “the expression of the reciprocal gift, which, according to Holy Writ, effects the union ‘in one flesh’.” which I would interpret as the unitive meaning.

Pope Pius XI’s Casti Connubii states
vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121930_casti-connubii_en.html
“and from this union of souls by God’s decree, a sacred and inviolable bond arises.” and “the marriage of Christians recalls that most perfect union which exists between Christ and the Church” also referring to the unitive meaning.

Ss. Augustine and Aquinas used the forumla “proles, fides, sacramentum.”
  1. proles (offspring, i.e. the procreative meanining of marital relations)
  2. fides (the fidelity of the couple, which can be understood to refer to the unitive meaning)
  3. sacramentum (the marital meaning)
 
In the Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales talks about the creation of children, and the mutual intercourse of the married couple. Granted, he refered to the creation of children as holy, and to the mutual intercourse as “lawful and just” but he certainly addressed the unitive purpose of sex. He also addressed that in more depth in the purposes of marriage. In that part of the book, he actually put the procreation of children as the 3rd reason for marriage, and the bonding and unifying love of the couples as the 1st reason for marriage. That actually surprised me.
 
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