VATICAN CITY: The Vatican on Tuesday doubled down on the value of monogamous marriage between a man and woman, responding to concerns raised by African bishops about the practice of polygamy in their flocks.
The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office said the Catholic Church had a well-documented position upholding the indissolubility of marriage as a lifelong union between spouses. But it said the church’s position on the unique and exclusive nature of a monogamous marriage was less well known.
In recent years at Vatican meetings of bishops and in visits by groups of bishops, African delegates have regularly complained that polygamy is widely practiced among their flocks and asked the Vatican for guidance.
“One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy” provides them with a doctrinal document tracing the way marriage has been treated in the Bible, poetry, Christian theology and philosophy and by various popes and church councils across history.
The Vatican’s doctrine chief and author, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, said the text wasn’t so much a condemnation of polygamy and polyamorous relations in the West as it was a celebration of the virtues and benefits of monogamy.
