What is the minimum family size a traditional Catholic should expect to have?

Um....the family size ordained by Providence?

No such thing.

There are way to many variables.  To have a minimum accepted standard seems to proceed from a nosy and unCatholic viewpoint.  'Why don't they have X amount of kids?  Gasp!'

When the couple gets married has a lot to do with it.  How old each spouse is when intimacy begins has a lot to do with it.  Medical issues have a lot to do with it.  How often the couple is intimate has a lot (everything) to do with it.  Genes have a lot to do with it.  

To have a 'Catholic radar' based on how many kids a family has isn't right.  

If the spouses decide not to have marital relations for the sake of their souls, then the minimum size of the family is two. I wonder how often this happens. Under normal circuмstances the family should be as large as it normally would be without contraception.

If one intends on being virginal for life, there is no point in getting married.  If this commitment comes after marriage (and children) then it makes more sense.  

Quote from: Guest

If the spouses decide not to have marital relations for the sake of their souls, then the minimum size of the family is two. I wonder how often this happens.

I would be happy to be a part of such a marriage.

Which marriage?  Perpetual virginity?  You would be living in temptation, most likely.

St Paul tells us that celibacy is better, but if one cannot abstain, better to be married than burn.  In his opinion, it is better for a person to be single (and celibate).

I also wonder to the validity of a marriage where the two people entering into it with no intention to have children.

It all seems a little backwards.  If one intends on being celibate, one should be single.

[1] Now concerning the thing whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. [2] But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. [3] Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband. [4] The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife. [5] Defraud not one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency. [6] But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment. [7] For I would that all men were even as myself: but every one hath his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another after that. [8] But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue, even as I. [9] But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burnt. [10] But to them that are married, not I but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband.

Are you sure you have no puritan derived hang-ups or trad Catholic psychological issues about sex being dirty?

Quite sure. I am single but I do not think sex is dirty, though I do think it is better for the soul to be celibate.

He's right. Marriage is for a purpose. God designed it primarily for the continuation of the human race. He also designed both spouses to desire the normal activities of marriage, especially if you become comfortable with each other, become good friends, and love each other.

Even if you have no "drive", your wife probably would, especially when she is fertile.

If you feel a calling to stay celibate, you should consider the religious life, priesthood, or the single life.

There is nothing more glorious to my mind than the thought of a brilliant young woman eschewing the world's poisonous flattery and being a mother of more than a dozen children.  The material and artistic productions of women have always been paltry in significance to fruits of a loving mother.  No one will remember what these sterile career women have done.  The mother of a large family is a well of generations.