Pope Leo XIV has approved a new decree underscoring that marriage, in Catholic teaching, is a lifelong union between two people and explicitly rejecting polyamory.
On Tuesday, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released an Italian-language document titled “One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy.”
“Polygamy, adultery, or polyamory are based on the illusion that the intensity of the relationship can be found in the succession of partners,” it states, according to a translation by the Catholic News Agency.
Newsweek has reached out to the Holy See for further comment via email.
Why It Matters
The Vatican’s updated guidance comes as legal and social acceptance of nonmonogamous relationships—including polygamy and polyamory—has increased in some parts of the world.
Bishops in Africa, where polygamy is practiced in certain communities, had requested clarification from the Holy See. At the same time, the growing visibility of polyamory in Western societies has raised new pastoral and doctrinal questions for Church leaders and believers.
By firmly restating monogamy as the norm for Catholic marriage, the Church aims to offer clear direction to Catholics globally and address complex situations, particularly for those entering the Church from different marital traditions. The decree applies to Catholics worldwide, whom the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics estimates at 1.4 billion.
What To Know
The doctrinal text reaffirms that marriage, in Catholic teaching, is a covenant between two individuals who freely and mutually commit themselves for life.
“Only monogamy guarantees that sexuality develops within a framework of recognizing the other as a subject with whom one shares one’s life entirely, a subject who is an end in himself and never a means to one’s own needs,” the document states. It continues that sexual union, involving the whole person, can honor the other as a co-subject of love—rather than an object of use—only when it is lived within a unique and exclusive bond.
The decree is forthright in its critique of polyamory, noting that “various problems have arisen from an excessive and uncontrolled pursuit of sex, or from the simple denial of its procreative purpose.”
It further claims that “the defense of monogamy is also a defense of the dignity of women,” arguing that the unity of marriage “implies, therefore, a free choice on the part of the woman, who has the right to demand exclusive reciprocity.”
What People Are Saying
“Their total and complete gift of self to one another can only be between two persons,” the Vatican states in the decree.
Sister Esther Lucas Jose Maria, a Mozambican member of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, raised the issue publicly in August, explaining: “We have told the bishops that we have many people who are living in polygamous situation who come to ask for baptism or other sacraments, and sometimes we have no answer to them. As theologians we have to think about it, to reflect about it, and to give the pastoral ways and to help these people.”
What Happens Next
The Vatican intends this updated guidance for bishops, priests and lay Catholics throughout the world, with particular attention to how pastoral care is offered to those in polygamous or otherwise nonmonogamous relationships.
The doctrinal note is meant to serve as material for study, formation and catechesis in Catholic communities, reinforcing the Church’s teaching that marriage is an exclusive, lifelong union between two people.
