The Church's basic moral principle regarding reproductive technologies is this: if a given technology assists the marital embrace in achieving its natural end, it can be morally acceptable, even praiseworthy. However, if it replaces the marital embrace as the means by which the child is conceived, it's not in keeping with God's design.

Marriage is the most basic expression of the vocation to love that all men and women have as persons made in God's image.

For those with the purity to see it, a nursing mother is one of the most precious, most beautiful, and most holy of all possible images of woman.

The free exchange of consent properly witnessed by the Church establishes the marriage bond. Sexual union consummates it - seals it, completes it, perfects it. Sexual union, then, is where the words of the wedding vows become flesh.

In the sacraments, spirit and matter "kiss." Heaven and earth embrace in a union that will never end.

Marital love is a reflection of how God loves. It is free, total, faithful and fruitful.

God's plan remains God's plan despite our sin.