Vatican Responds To Restless Bishops In Africa About The Rise Of Polygamy

JAKARTA - The Vatican on Tuesday reiterated to its people about marriage once in a lifetime or being monogamous between men and women and upholding the commitment not to divorce.

This follows the emergence of concerns raised by bishops in Africa about the practice of polygamy in their congregation. The bishops then asked for directions from the Vatican.

The Vatican refers to documents from the Vatican doctrine office stating that the Catholic Church has documentation or a neat record related to marriage as a lifelong bond between undisbanded couples.

The document is titled One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy. It also contains a doctrineal document tracing how marriage has been treated in Bibles, poetry, theology and Christian philosophy, as well as by various whales and church conciliations throughout history.

The head of the Vatican doctrine and author, Cardinal Argentina Victor Manuel Fernandez, said the document was not a curse on polygamy and polyamorous relations in the West, but rather a celebration of the virtues and benefits of monogamy.

The message taken in the document's text, said Fernandez, is about upholding the dignity of a partner, especially women.

"Those who really love know that others cannot be a means to achieve their goals, and that the void of oneself must be filled in another way, not by dominating their partners," he said, Wednesday, November 26, quoted from AP.

"This is what happens in various forms of unhealthy desire that lead to manifestations of explicit and covert violence, oppression, psychological pressure, control, strangulation, which are often accompanied by infidelity," he continued.

The One Flesh: In Prayer of Monogamy document is 40 pages thick with 256 feet and is written only in Italian. In the introduction, Fernandez said that reading the final chapter, about give your husband and wife and the conclusion, is sufficient to understand the important message.

The Catholic doctrine states that the calendar of marriage is an exclusive lifelong bond between men and women.

The final section of this new document discusses sexuality, procreation, and sexual attraction between partners, as well as reminds us of Fernandez's earlier writings on the topic.

Fernandez, who is an Argentine theologian, was appointed by Pope Francis in 2023. He was criticized by conservatives who found his old writing in an unprinted book titled "Heal Me with Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing".

A year later, Fernandez's other unprinted and similar-like book also caused a stir, the title "The Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensality."