[James]

Ritual purity, at least wrt sex, is part of the Old (Ceremonial) Law, no longer binding. No-one seriously argues now that this type of law binds. Cf. S Thomas Aquinas. If it did, Eastern-rite (and Latin-rite!) married clergy would be guilty of mortal sin. God doesn't draw a line line half way down Europe and say, "To the West, ritual pudity wrt marriage applies, to the East, it doesn't". My comparison of priests with lawyers, etc, was to do with time management. Marriage is a sacramemt, which ex opere operato, sanctifies. It is not "worldly" although Luther thought it was. It has never been the actual teaching of the church that sex is either inherently or ritually impure, but many catholics, including saints and popes, held such an erroneous idea (it was VERY popular in the 19th C), and it was responsible for the imposition of the alleged obligation, as one can see, examining the original papal legislation, namely, the decretals of Popes (Ss) Damasus and Siricius.