A recent statement from the Vatican rejected any affirming doctrinal stance towards polygamy and polyamory. The decree, issued in Italian, was entitled “U NA CARO [one flesh]: In Praise of Monogamy.” It stated that marriage requires “unity and indissolubility” and that a monogamous marriage “can be defined as the unique and exclusive union between one woman and one man, in other words, as the mutual belonging of the two, which cannot be shared with others.” It had harsh words against polygamy, stating it is “in opposition with moral law. It radically contradicts conjugal communion.” “There is no place for some form of polyandry, no polygamy,” the document said, and cited St. Thomas Aquinas, who equated polygamy as “a form of slavery.”

Polygamy is a major problem in some African communities, where polygamy is still widely practiced. The Catholic Church, according to Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández at a press conference, rather than condemning its African congregations, would like to work alongside them and that the purpose of the document is not to “go against polygamy, but to cultivate monogamy.” The document also addressed “different public forms of non-monogamous unions — sometimes called ‘polyamory’ — that are growing in the West.” It is the first time the Catholic church has acknowledged such alternative living styles. “Monogamy is not simply the opposite of polygamy. It is much more, and its deepening allows a conception of marriage in all of its richness and fertility,” while sex in marriage “is not limited to ensuring procreation.”

The statement also affirmed the goodness of sexual pleasure within marriage.  “We cannot ignore that in recent decades, in the context of postmodern consumerist individualism, various problems have arisen from an excessive and uncontrolled pursuit of sex, or from the simple denial of the procreative purpose of sexuality,” the document stated. “A peculiarity of recent decades is the explicit denial of the unitive purpose of sexuality and of marriage itself. This is especially due to feelings of anxiety, of always being busy, of wanting more free time for oneself, of being constantly obsessed with traveling and discovering new places,” it continued. “As a result, the desire for emotional exchange, for sexual relations themselves, but also for dialogue and cooperation, disappears, as these things are seen as ‘stressful.’” It also noted that monogamous relationships protect women. “The unity of marriage therefore implies a free choice on the part of women, who have the right to demand exclusive reciprocity.”