The Conjugal Act as Personal Act: A Study of the Catholic Concept of the Conjugal Act in the Light of Christian Anthropology

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John Galvin, “[Humanae Vitae: Heroic, Deficient - or Both?](https://isidore.co/misc/Physics%20papers%20and%20books/Zotero/storage/4X9LID5M/Galvin%20-%202002%20-%20Humanae%20Vitae%20Heroic,%20Deficient%20-%20or%20Both.pdf),” *Latin Mass Magazine* , Winter 2002, 6–24 (p. 15):> The substitution of the new concept emphasizes the causal link between sex and procreation “meaning” in place of the traditional language of “end” or the natural law arguments by design or “purpose” represents a radical restructuring.I think these terms were meant to be distinct, not substituted.Petri, Thomas, O.P., [*Aquinas and the Theology of the Body*](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=6556), p. 81n178:> Donald Asci has provided a thorough investigation of this development as well the difference between the notions of end, purpose, and meaning. See Asci, *Conjugal Act* , [240](https://archive.org/details/conjugalactasper0000asci/page/240/mode/2up)–69. * * *[Griffin](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=7019) ref:6.59: on how the conjugal act even among sterile couples is still receptive to God's action:> since God is the primary cause of human offspring, the parents are in the posture of **active receptivity**. Active, because parents possess the dignity and freedom of true generators; and yet receptive because, strictly speaking, they alone “do not generate the new human person, but rather actively receive him from God as a gift freely given.”[110](javascript:void\(0\)) The receptive modality of the couple clarifies why the marital union of sterile couples or couples practicing periodic continence is still “procreative” since they “engage in the conjugal act in a manner suitable to and worthy of human nature” as they “cooperate with God in the transmission of life and accept his design for human sexuality...Procreation, understood as the human role in the transmission of life, transcends the notion of conception and is present in every conjugal act, whether or not the act bears its full fruit.”[111](javascript:void\(0\))> 110\. Asci, *The Conjugal Act as a Personal Act* , 189. Asci remarks that Mary's active receptivity ot the will of God is "the form that a couple's cooperation in the transmission of life should take" and, in fact, is the model for all human cooperation with God (p. 190).> 111\. *ibid.* 194.