The conjugal act, profoundly unitive, isa procreative kind of act, and the gift of the child is to be profoundly linked to the spouses»
incarnate gift of self in that conjugal, not merely copulatory, act.
The authoritative word given by the Holy Spirit to the Church at the defining and pivotal moment
of Vatican II nearly fifty years ago was especially «made
incarnate» in Britain in September, 2010, during Benedict's apostolic visit: to seek unity with our separated brethren in the other Christian confessions, to affirm all that is good and true in secular culture without in any way watering down our witness to the truth
of the fullness
of the Christian faith, to declare without apology that the Catholic patrimony
of faith and reason working in harmony remains a
gift that the twenty - first century desperately needs if it is to avoid
self - destruction, and which it neglects or dismisses at its own peril.
If ever there was an opportunity in human history for the reconstruction
of faith, for the
self - disclosure
of the Incomprehensible Transcendent source
of being as God, as wholly loyal to his creation, as redeemer
of all the promises given with the
gift of existence itself, then it was at this point where faith in him became
incarnate.