catholicworldreport.com
2025-11-28
A new Vatican document defends marriage as a monogamous relationship amid the growing popularity of polyamory, and addresses the pastoral challenges caused by conversion to Catholicism of people in polygamous situations.
"One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy" was published in Italian by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Nov. 25.
"Polygamy, adultery, or polyamory are based on the illusion that the intensity of the relationship can be found in the succession of partners," the Vatican says.
To illustrate this metaphorically, the text cites the myth of Don Juan, an unbridled seducer whose womanizing leads him to hell, which demonstrates that "multiplying partners in a supposed total union means fragmenting the meaning of marital love."
The text also draws on the writing of poets Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Rabindranath Tagore, and Emily Dickinson, as well as philosophers like the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
The document, signed by Pope Leo XIV, does not address the indissolubility of marriage or the purpose of procreation, but focuses on the unitive aspect of marriage: "A communion of love and life shared by both spouses, a communion that is not oriented solely toward procreation, but also toward the integral good of both."
The text originated from a request made during the Synod on Synodality for African bishops to prepare a statement on polygamy. African bishops themselves asked the Holy See for guidance on the issue, the doctrine dicastery said earlier this month.
Doctrine of the Faith: Monogamy is not a limitation but a promise of the infinite by Isabella Piro