The Perpetual Virginity of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Not unlike the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary, in body and soul into Heaven, this de fide doctrine derives its integrity from the first Marian dogma of Mary being the Mother of God, in virtue of her first-born Son’s divinity in his single-person hypostatically united with our humanity. Mary is the mother of God or the Divine Logos incarnate (Isa. 7:14; Lk. 1:35, 43; Jn. 1:14; Col 2:9). So, the dogma of Mary ever-virgin basically holds that the mother of our Lord remained a virgin her entire life given the Divine Maternity, despite her marriage with Joseph and the Jewish religious and cultural norms of the time.

According to Catholic beliefs, Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus, during his birth, and after she gave birth to him. Additionally, Catholics have always viewed Mary's union with the Holy Spirit as being similar to a marriage in a spiritual sense, much like the relationship between YHWH and Israel. This spiritual union was considered to be moral in nature. Mary's decision to remain chaste during her entire life and to stay continent in her marriage, regardless of who her legal husband may have been, was guided by the Holy Spirit from an early age. She was chosen to be the virgin spouse of the Holy Spirit in a spiritual and mystical sense from all eternity, as mentioned in Lk. 1:35.

God designed a covenant between Himself and Mary, His handmaid, that was similar to a matrimonial bond. This covenant was endowed with all the dignity contained in the sacrament. It was fitting, therefore, that a partnership that reflected the entirety of life and was naturally inclined towards the good of the spouses, the procreation of offspring and their nurturing, should exist between the two. In the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, a man and woman become one flesh to fulfill the Divine purpose of consummating their marriage. Similarly, the Holy Spirit and Mary should become morally one in spirit, through their quasi-physical union, in accordance with the Divine moral law, for the same Divine purpose. To some extent, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, God proposed to Mary when she was a young girl living and serving in the Temple.

He claimed her as his own virgin bride and possession, not only so that they should beget the holy Child together, but also that through their consummation they might beget all His children who would be regenerated unto God by being reborn in the Spirit (Jn. 3:3; Rom. 8:29). All members of Christ’s Mystical Body are the only other children Mary begot following the birth of her divine Son, who belong to the spiritual family of God that transcends all blood ties in the natural world (Mk. 3:31-35) and are the offspring of the free promised woman (Gen. 3:15; Rev. 12:17). - MC