Polygamy, Adultery, and Polyamory (still) Prohibited

Noted in my news feed this morning:

“One spouse is enough, Vatican tells world’s Catholics“
Joshua McElwee, Reuters (November 25, 2025)

“Happily ever after doesn’t require any complicated maths, the Vatican said on Tuesday — for Catholics, one spouse is enough.

“In a new decree approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican’s top doctrinal office told the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics they should seek to marry one spouse for life and should not have multiple sexual relationships.

“Criticizing the practice of polygamy in Africa, including among members of the Church, the Vatican reiterated that it believes marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman.…”

“…’Polygamy, adultery, or polyamory are based on the illusion that the intensity of the relationship can be found in a succession of faces,’ the new decree said.

“The document does not discuss divorce, which the Church does not recognise as it views marriage as a lifelong commitment.

“The Church however has an annulment process, which evaluates whether marriages were properly contracted, and stresses that partners are not expected to stay in abusive relationships.“
[emphasis mine]

This is not what I’ll be talking about this week. But it’s got the potential for becoming ‘breaking news!’, so I’ll take a few minutes with it.

The basic idea, that marriage is between two humans — a man and a woman — isn’t new. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1601-1658)

Neither are rules outlining ways I could, but should not, cheat on my wife. Or vice-versa. (Catechism, 2380-2391)

Most of those prohibitions involve behavior I emphatically would not want to do in the first place, but my guess is that some folks would. I’m surprised that more folks in my native culture haven’t been calling for inter-species marriages. It seemed, in my youth, a likely extension of the animal-rights lunatic fringe. And I’m drifting off-topic.

I found a document on vatican.va that matches the Reuters article description.

• “Una Caro” (Italian translation)
  Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (November 25, 2025)

But since it’s the Italian translation, and runs well upwards of a thousand words, I haven’t read it. Google’s translate function works pretty well, but the document is academese, and — that’s yet another topic.

There’s more I could, and maybe should, say about marriage, Catholic style. But I’ve touched on some of it before:

• “My Wife and I: A Fragrant Memory” (December 14, 2024)
  • A Movie and Pizza, Coffee and Conversation
    • Reasonable Questions
• “COVID-19, Mass and Marriage: Its Not All About Me” (March 16, 2021)
  • Sex and Feelings, Marriage and Me — Briefly
    • Emotion Happens, Thought is an Option
• “A Family Visit is Still in Progress: Kids and Adoption” (February 1, 2021)
  • A Brief, Succinct, Terse and Very Short Look at Family and Children