Posted on 09/16/2014 2:12:12 PM PDT by NYer
The Tswana people of South Africa practice polygamy. (Photo/Wikipedia)
Say family issues to most Americans or Europeans, and theyre likely to flash on divorce, or the challenges of single-parent households, or perhaps same-sex relationships and the push for gay marriage.
What probably wouldnt come naturally to mind is polygamy. Yet in many parts of the non-Western world, polygamy is a major feature of family life, and thus a major pastoral challenge for the Catholic Church.
Discussion of polygamy is likely to surface at the Oct. 5-19 Synod of Bishops on the family in the Vatican, and could be a factor in the politics of an expected debate over whether the churchs ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving communion ought to be revised.
Polygamous marriage (also referred to as polygyny) is widely practiced in many regions of the world, including Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.
Though estimates vary, sociologists believe that tens of millions of men and women worldwide are involved in some form of polygamous marriages. In Senegal, for instance, nearly 47 percent of marriages involve multiple partners, according to United Nations figures.
Facing those realities, some churches in Africa have tried to encompass polygamy within the traditional Christian understanding of marriage.
In 1987, the Fifth General Assembly of the All-Africa Conference of Churches, a Protestant ecumenical body, concluded that the rather harsh attitude of the Church has been a painful but real cause of disintegration of some otherwise stable marriages and families. In 1988, the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion decided to admit polygamists under certain circumstances, in response to pressure from bishops in Kenya and Uganda.
Catholicism, however, has held the line. Speaking to a Black Catholic Congress in the United States in July 2007, Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, said that on polygamy, the Catholic Church is particularly firm and consistent, giving no room whatsoever for doubts and exceptions.
The churchs tough stance has been shaped not only by defense of tradition, but also impressions that polygamy discriminates against women. In the late 1990s, a survey of African Catholic theology cited 23 female African Catholic theologians who argued that since mutuality and equality are Biblical ideals, Scripture should not be used to justify polygamous marriage.
On the other hand, some Catholic bishops and theologians support greater pastoral flexibility in dealing with the complicated realities of polygamy. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana made this argument at a 2005 Synod of Bishops in the Vatican.
You cant just say to a man, let the other [wives] go and stay with the first wife, Turkson said. Theres a question of justice. You can ask the man to provide for her ongoing security, setting up a small business for her, for example.
Theres also [the wives] need for a sexual partner, Turkson said. You cant just say to everyone they should be celibate. You dont want to expose them to prostitution and so on.
When cardinals from around the world met in Rome last February to set the table for the October synod on the family, some prelates from non-Western cultures hinted that polygamy may drive them to oppose any change in the ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving the sacraments.
Their argument went like this: The Catholic Church has been telling people in polygamous marriages that they have to change because marriage means one man and one woman, for life. If the Church softens that teaching for the divorced and remarried, it might face pressure to cut a deal for polygamists, too.
You had cardinals from the Third World who got up and said that if theyre dealing with polygamy issues, they dont want to hear about divorce, said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, Texas.To think of the church purely from the point of view of Europe, and our preoccupations in Europe, is not to see the whole picture.
DiNardo paraphrased their message as, If you try something with this, its going to hurt us on polygamy.
Theyve been telling people that if you come into the church, youve got to choose one wife, DiNardo said. If you suddenly change that, couldnt [people in polygamous marriages] say, Why cant you give me a break, too?
Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster in the United Kingdom said at the time it was important to hear these voices.
To think of the church purely from the point of view of Europe, and our preoccupations in Europe, is not to see the whole picture, he said.
Not all African prelates, however, see polygamy as an impediment to rethinking the communion ban.
I dont think giving consideration to the divorced and remarried would create any problem for the ministry of marriage in Africa, said Turkson in a March 2014 Boston Globe interview.
Instead, Turkson said that what hed like to see from the Synod of Bishops is a broadening of the churchs discussion beyond the Western model of a two-parent nuclear family, to bring into view Africas experience of broader ties within a clan.
For us, family often means extended relationships within the clan, composed of several smaller family units together that give support to one another and provide rules for family life, he said.
An exclusive focus on Western problems such as divorce and cohabitation, Turkson argued, risks leaving Africa out of the picture.
Whatever impact polygamy has on the divorce debate, it seems clear it will be in the air when the bishops talk family issues this October.
If that strikes some Catholics in Europe and North America as odd, consider it a lesson in the realities of a global church. Two-thirds of the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world now live outside the West, and increasingly their priorities and concerns are destined to set the global agenda.
In other words, Westerners probably ought to get used to seeing polygamy on the churchs working list of family issues.
And then there is always serial polygamy as practiced in Hollywood.
And then there is this side of the argument (sarc)
Woman dropped out of Cambridge to enter polygamous marriage to a muslim
My Atomic Physics prof told a little joke, which I shall attempt to relate ...
He reminded us that due to the presence of 14C, 40K, and similar unstable isotopes in our bodies, we're all somewhat radioactive. Not much, but measurably so. From this we may conclude that sleeping with one woman does not pose a great hazard, but sleeping with two women can be extremely dangerous ...
Radiological hazards aside, my lovely bride has been a boon companion these many years. I wouldn't have it any other way ... two women would screw it all up.
Matthew 19:
4 [Jesus] answered, Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one? 6 So they are no longer two but one.[b] What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
I told my wife to pick out my next wife. Does that count?
Yes, and that’s the problem with “divorced and remarried.”
People should be aware that this publication, Crux, is new and is backed by the Boston Globe, of all things, and has writers who are self-appointed Popes and disagree with the Church on just about everything. Weirdly enough, the person who writes the Q&A column isn’t even Catholic (she’s a liberal Jew).
I have always thought John Allen was duplicitous: that is, he tries to pose as objective, but is basically a liberal without the rhetoric who is almost more dangerous because he sort of slips things in and quotes very selectively.
“... in July 2007, Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, said that on polygamy, the Catholic Church is particularly firm and consistent, giving no room whatsoever for doubts and exceptions.
Actually, Cardinal Onaiyekan, the Catholic Church made an exception in the 12th century but everyone has forgotten about that. I see nothing wrong with following that same practice today when necessary.
Oy. Depravity.
I’m curious. What was that 12th century exception?
yes, me too.
Unfortunately, those of us with the good sense God gave a mule seem to be a shrinking breed these days.
“Im curious. What was that 12th century exception?”
The pope (I believe it was Alexander III in 1169) responded to a request from missionaries in the Baltic region to allow polygamous unions already formed to continue for one generation among recent converts. This was deemed necessary because the splitting up of these unions would have caused a huge humanitarian crisis and potential converts might have put off converting because of affections of the heart and very real needs to care for their children from polygamous unions. The text of the actual letter or decree from Alexander (or whichever pope it was) is in Migne’s Pat. Lat. but I forget which volume (there are 221 volumes in that series so it’s easy to forget). I read it years ago when I was in graduate school. It is an excellent example of the pragmatic nature of missionary work in the Middle Ages.
See post #31.
see post 31
I knew the "Dark Ages" weren't so dark. I find it interesting that there were still missionary fields in Europe so late in history.
“I find it interesting that there were still missionary fields in Europe so late in history.”
Right up to 1386 - Lithuania converted that year. And in the Middle Ages they had their own version of the ‘New Evangelization’ too!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.