Did Mary and Joseph ever have sex?

[arewethereyet]

Catholics explain this away by making the claim that Jesus’ half-siblings were Joseph’s children by his previous wife. This is necessary to maintain the Marian dogma of perpetual virginity.

There is absolutely no scriptural support for this idea, but when has THAT ever stopped Catholics?

Boru

Dredging the memory banks, but didn't that whole notion start with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and gather legs from there? For Assumption, Mary had to be "pure". "pure" in this case defined as never having had sex? Does anyone actually know why this might be a virtue?

Of course, this was yes another reason for me to lose faith. In the RCC Mary is close to, if not actually, a co-deity. Just look at the rosary. I will never forget my devout RCC father's attempt to introduce a nightly recitation of the rosary. He gave up due to lack of attendance. I and my siblings always came up with somewhere else we had to be. On those rare occasions where some one of us could not escape, it instantly became a matter of sibling jest. Hahaha, you got caught in the trap.

That said, I will not have a harsh word for the long dead man. I always say out front that he was not a gentleman. He was a gentle man. He needed no religion for that. It was his nature.

It was my priviledge, before he passed, to sit down at a table and confront such matters. I am an atheist and he a devout catholic. We had a heart to heart, a meeting of minds, an acknowledgment of everyone's position on many matters. No faith in imaginary spooks will ever buy that.

One thing sticks in my mind. He considered himself a failure in life. Why? Because he raised four degreed children who all rejected god. He provided for us, funded our life, food, education, health and so on, so we are all happy out in productive employ. But he felt like a failure because we were all atheists.

That is what religion really does to people.

Growing up Catholic I certainly remember that Mary was often the go-to for prayer.  The church I attended for many years was a Basilica and there was nearly as much imagery of Mary as there was Jesus, God the Father, and the saints.  She even had her own section of the altar area.

Many were the homes that had grottos in their yards made from old bathtubs sunk halfway into the ground and decorated with all manner of rocks, glass bits, marbles, old jewelry, etc. and in those grottos stood a statue of the Virgin Mary.  They were such a common site as to barely be noticed...they were almost expected near farmhouses in the area.

First prayers - The Our Father and Hail Mary.

When people weren't praying to one or the other they were pleading with saints to help them find car keys.

One of the most popular roads near town to go parking was called BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) Road because at certain time if you parked facing east there appeared to be a pale blue silhouette of Mary in the distance.  That vision didn't seem to help with the saving of virginity among the teenagers.  Turns out it was how a light shone on the second floor of the barn on that farm - one of the few painted white and not red.