If I may, to Sepharad, Gail, Lily et. al, I would like to point out something which Sepharad has said (and implied as being a late addition to Christianity): That is, that she believes Christians think of sex as ‘dirty’ and that the perpetual virginity of Mary came out of this. from Sepharad . . .
stems from the ancient and medieval Catholic view of sex as sinful, even in marriage,except for procreation (a view advocated by Catholic clergy, esp. Pope Gregory the Great).
First, while some individual Christians at any period of time (including this one) might have ‘thought’ such a thing, fact is, there is no documentation that this has ever been an infallible, dogmatic interpretation ‘to be believed’ and given dogmatic pronouncement of “thou shalt believe this”. Ever. I believe that reading documents in context (both of the times and especially of to WHOM they were written–) is necessary; pulling a quote from a Pope without such critical reading just leads to confusion as we see.
In fact, the people for whom ‘flesh’ per se was considered ‘dirty’ were such heretics as the Albigensians and others. While the Albigensians were more ones to consider sex as okay (if the couple were NOT married) and that marriage was somehow the dirty part, the fact is, they were among the ones who ‘split’ the idea of flesh and spirit into “Spirit good, flesh BAD”. This was never authentic Christian belief.
Second, Sepharad mentions both an earlier (how early is debatable with the use of Pope Gregory, 8th century being on the cusp of end of Dark Ages start of early Middle ages) and a ‘later’ (Medieval) time frame for this ‘push’ to ‘make’ Mary ever-virgin. But a quick glimpse of the library here at CA (and elsewhere on the ‘net’) indicates that Mary’s perpetual virginity was a part of Christian teaching from the beginning --that is to say, from the earliest records we have, such as the
second century AD–WELL BEFORE the so-called Medieval ‘sex is dirty’ accusations against Christians.
IOW, the teaching of the PV dates back to the beginning of Christian teaching, and is not ‘made up of whole cloth’ or somewhat thrust into exaggerated prominence to further the ambitions of the ‘sex is dirty’ crowd (themselves mostly putative at that); what may have happened is that, coupled with a variety of other factors including cultural, sociological, economic, literary, etc. that the actual TEACHING of the PV EXISTED FIRST, and (as can happen to any authentic teaching any time) there may (MAY) have been certain individuals who attempted to misuse that teaching. Those attempts however neither invalidate the teaching or make it suspect BECAUSE of the ones who misused it.
Finally, without going into TMI (too much information): Even we (horrors) celibate Catholics of longstanding do not think that sex is dirty. It is a beautiful gift God has given to be itself given as a gift by husband and wife to each other, as He Himself wished to be done (male and female He created them). Certainly it has been twisted by many individuals who have misused it and misunderstood it but individuals can do such to any and ALL aspects of God’s creation, sadly enough.
Celibacy itself as as ‘natural’ to the unmarried person as the sexual act is to the married persons. We are all called to chastity and continence, whether we are married or not married. What is unnatural, even evil, is to separate sex from its God-given role as gift of spouses and attempt to make it ‘only’ about giving ‘pleasure’ or being an ‘action’ between two beings who are not united in authentic matrimony with each other or, if they are, using it not as gift but as weapon or hurt. That is evil. Celibacy and continent behavior are not.
**
Gotcha!! Toooo late to backpedal now!! **
This PV just does not make any sense…