Vatican answers African bishops concerned about polygamy with document praising monogamous marriage
The Vatican issued a document emphasizing the importance of monogamous marriage in response to concerns from African bishops regarding polygamy. The document, titled “A Dear One: In Praise of Monogamy,” traces the history of marriage in religious texts and theological writings. The Vatican's doctrine office highlighted the Catholic Church's stance on the lifelong and exclusive nature of marriage between a man and a woman. The document includes a section on sexuality, procreation, and sexual attraction, referencing previous writings by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. The document is 40 pages long and written in Italian.
19 days ago
The Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a 40-page document titled "Una caro: Elogio della monogamia" (One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy) on November 25, 2025, authored by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and signed by Pope Leo XIV.1 2
This Italian-language text praises monogamous marriage as an exclusive, lifelong union between one man and one woman, emphasizing its unitive aspect over procreation.2 5
It responds to pastoral challenges like polygamy in Africa and rising polyamory in the West, drawing from Scripture, theology, philosophy, and poetry.1 2
African bishops raised concerns about polygamy during the Synod on Synodality, prompting a request for Vatican guidance on integrating converts from polygamous situations without abandoning Church teaching.2 5
The document also addresses declining Catholic marriages in the West, such as France's drop from 102,024 in 2003 to 41,402 in 2023, amid growing non-monogamous unions.5
Earlier in 2025, Africa's Symposium of Episcopal Conferences issued six pastoral guidelines to welcome polygamous families while upholding monogamy and protecting women and children from poverty.2
Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya clarified that polygamy was discussed as a challenge to Christian marriage, not an African ideal to endorse.2
The text argues that monogamy fosters mutual belonging, where spouses give themselves fully and exclusively, treating each other as ends, not means.2 5
It critiques polygamy, adultery, and polyamory as illusions fragmenting love, using the Don Juan myth to illustrate how multiple partners dilute marital depth.1 2
Drawing from St. John Paul II, it states that only monogamy ensures sexuality respects the other's full personhood within a unique bond.2
Monogamy is portrayed as a defense of women's dignity, granting them exclusive reciprocity and freedom from objectification.2
The document traces monogamy's biblical roots in Genesis and prophetic imagery, viewing it as a sign of God's faithful covenant.5
Church history is surveyed from the Fathers like St. John Chrysostom, who saw monogamy as an antidote to sexual abandon, to modern popes including Leo XIII and John Paul II.2 5
It highlights St. Augustine's views on marriage, alongside Eastern Orthodox thinkers and post-war theologians like Hans Urs von Balthasar.5
The Catechism is cited to address conversion challenges in regions like Africa and India, where monogamy is often the cultural ideal despite polygamous practices.2
Footnotes reference diverse sources, including Pope Francis's Amoris laetitia and non-Christian texts like the Hindu Srimad Bhagavatam, to show monogamy's universal appeal.5
One lengthy footnote counters claims of monogamy as a Western exception in Africa, noting traditions elevating the first wife and viewing monogamy as divinely intended.5
Philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard and Karol Wojtyła's Theology of the Body underscore monogamy's role in personal fulfillment and ethical love.2 5
Poets such as Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Rabindranath Tagore, and Emily Dickinson illustrate monogamy's emotional depth, with citations from Indian texts like the Thirukkural.5
The document critiques modern culture's reduction of sexuality to consumption or denial of procreation, advocating openness to life as enriching conjugal charity.2
It addresses sexual violence on social media, calling for education in faithful love as a path to transcendent joy, not restriction.2
Examples include the Maritains' philosophical marriage and global customs promoting monogamy amid hardships.5
For converts, the text urges compassionate accompaniment without compromising doctrine, balancing evangelization with family stability.2 5
It emphasizes conjugal charity as a loving friendship expressed through sexuality, oriented toward self-giving and life's communication, without mandating procreation per act.2
The Vatican positions monogamy as prophetic witness in a fractured world, countering polyamory's rise and polygamy's pastoral hurdles.1 5
Fernández suggests readers focus on the final chapter for essentials: mutual belonging endures beyond attraction, fostering growth in love.1 5
Overall, the document aims to inspire bishops, couples, and youth by reframing monogamy as a "beautiful mosaic" of faithful union.5
Examine the Catholic Church’s theological justification for monogamous marriage
The Catholic Church's theological justification for monogamous marriage is deeply rooted in Scripture, particularly in the creation accounts and the teachings of Jesus Christ, which emphasize marriage as an exclusive union between one man and one woman. From the beginning, Genesis portrays marriage as a profound unity: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Gen 2:24). This verse establishes monogamy as part of God's original plan, where the marital bond reflects the Creator's intention for total, reciprocal self-giving without division. The Old Testament, while acknowledging practices like polygamy among patriarchs due to cultural contexts, progressively evolves toward monogamy as the ideal, as seen in prophetic imagery of God's covenant with Israel as an indissoluble, faithful union (e.g., Hos 2; Mal 2:14-16). Jesus explicitly restores and elevates this primordial design, rejecting divorce and any form of multiplicity in spouses. In Matthew 19:4-6, He quotes Genesis to affirm that "what God has joined together, let no one separate," underscoring marriage's indissolubility and exclusivity. Similarly, in Matthew 5:31-32 and Mark 10:11-12, Christ declares that remarriage after divorce constitutes adultery, thereby excluding both polygamy and serial monogamy that mimics it. This teaching aligns with the prophetic condemnation of divorce (Mal 2:16) and positions Christian marriage as a radical departure from Jewish and pagan allowances for polygamy or easy dissolution.
Saint Paul reinforces this by commanding fidelity in marriage, echoing Christ's words: "The wife should not separate from her husband... and the husband should not divorce his wife" (1 Cor 7:10-11). The apostolic witness thus transitions from Old Testament concessions—such as Mosaic divorce laws due to "hardness of heart" (Mt 19:8)—to the full realization of monogamous, lifelong union as the fulfillment of God's will. These scriptural foundations portray monogamy not as a mere cultural norm but as a divine ordinance that mirrors the faithful, exclusive love within the Trinity and between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:25-32).
Early Church Fathers and medieval theologians built upon this biblical base, interpreting monogamy as essential to the sacrament's nature. The Catechism of the Council of Trent explicitly states that Christ restored marriage's primitive qualities of unity and indissolubility, declaring polygamy incompatible with the words "they shall be two in one flesh" (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5-6). It argues that allowing multiple spouses would undermine the equality and totality of the marital bond, as evidenced by Christ's prohibition of adultery even in thought (Mt 5:28). This patristic consensus, drawing from Augustine's blessings of marriage (fides, offspring, sacrament), views conjugal faith as demanding "absolute unity," where rights due to one spouse cannot be shared.
Saint Thomas Aquinas provides a philosophical and natural law rationale in the Summa Contra Gentiles, asserting that monogamy aligns with human nature and reason. He explains that animals naturally pair monogamously when the male invests in offspring, a trait amplified in humans due to greater paternal responsibility and the desire for certainty of parentage. Polygamy disrupts this by fostering jealousy, discord, and inequality, reducing wives to "menials" rather than equal partners in a free, reciprocal friendship. Aquinas cites Genesis 2:24 to emphasize that marriage unites "two in one flesh," precluding multiplicity and promoting harmony at the domestic hearth. This medieval synthesis integrates Scripture with Aristotelian insights on equality, portraying monogamy as ordered to the common good of the family and society.
The Church's Magisterium consistently upholds monogamy as intrinsic to marriage's essence, linking it to human dignity, procreation, and sacramental grace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that "unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage," rendering polygamy incompatible with this unity. Divorce fractures what God has joined, while polygamy denies the equal personal dignity of spouses, who give themselves in a "total and therefore unique and exclusive" love. Pope Pius XI's Casti Connubii echoes this, declaring that the Gospel restored the "original and perfect unity" of one man and one woman, abrogating all dispensations for polygamy or divorce. The encyclical invokes Trent's solemn declaration that Christ taught two persons only are united in this bond, prohibiting even willful desires that violate conjugal honor. Even intimate acts between spouses must reflect chastity and fidelity to God's law, ensuring marriage's splendor as a path to holiness.
In contemporary teachings, Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body deepens this justification by emphasizing the body's "nuptial meaning," where sexual self-giving requires the lifelong, exclusive covenant of marriage to be authentic. Monogamy prevents the "instrumentalization" of persons, respecting the unity of body and soul as temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20). Adultery or polygamy deceives by fracturing this communion, while true marital love fosters sanctity through total self-donation. The Pontifical Biblical Commission's The Bible and Morality traces this development from Old Testament polygamy—tolerated but not ideal—to Christ's exclusion of divorce and Paul's affirmation of equal status in monogamous fidelity. Collectively, these sources reject polygamy as a "radical denial" of God's plan, accessible to reason yet elevated by faith.
Theological controversies, such as interpretations of Mosaic concessions, are resolved by prioritizing Christ's restorative teaching and the Church's constant practice, where more recent documents like the Compendium (2004) reaffirm earlier ones without divergence.
The Catholic Church justifies monogamous marriage theologically as a reflection of divine creation, scriptural revelation, and sacramental reality, ensuring unity, fidelity, and fruitfulness for human flourishing. From Genesis's one-flesh union to Christ's indissoluble bond and the Magisterium's unwavering doctrine, monogamy embodies God's faithful love, inviting spouses to holiness amid contemporary challenges.