Today, November 25, 2025, the Vatican presented the announced document “An expensive: In Praise of Monogamy. This is a doctrinal note on the value of marriage as an exclusive union and mutual belonging. At present, the document is only available in Italian, pending translations into the main languages.
1. The document is not about polygamy.
The text was presented by Cardinal Fernández, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Monsignor Fernández explained that strictly speaking, “it is not a document about polygamy but about monogamy,” that is, it focuses on a reflection on the property of unity in marriage, the union between man and woman.
However, the cardinal acknowledged that the origin of this reflection was due to a request from some African bishops who wanted an attractive argument to encourage believers in their dioceses to live monogamously.
2. Arguments are drawn from Scripture but also from culture.
The fundamental intention of this Doctrinal Note is proactive: to draw from Sacred Scripture, the history of Christian thought, philosophy, and even poetry, reasons and motivations that encourage choosing a unique and exclusive union of love.
The Vatican maintains that monogamy is not a true value because it is revealed, but rather because it is a natural conviction that is often expressed in culture, as it is inscribed in the nature of every human being.
3. A document for in-depth work
The Vatican believes that the text could provide marriage movements and groups with varied and useful material for study and dialogue.
4. Marriage is all-encompassing.
Marriage is exclusive and all-encompassing, since man and woman are one flesh. This implies a total gift of time, home, plans, the whole person, and the body. Sexual self-giving would be false if it were not accompanied by a total personal gift in all areas of life.
Marital unity is strengthened by practicing charity through everyday gestures such as listening, helping, encouraging, comforting, valuing, and showing gratitude. Furthermore, conjugal charity requires living in truth: transparency and honesty are essential pillars.
5. Marriage, a call to the highest peaks of holiness
The document emphasizes that marital love for Christians is always called to reach the heights of charity, that supernatural love that “excuses everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything” (1 Cor 13:7). Charity is the soul of marital unity, not just a feeling, but a theological virtue that makes it possible to love with a love that is gratuitous, faithful, generous, and capable of giving itself totally. This supernatural love is a divine gift that perfects the grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony.
6. Spouses should pray together.
The document emphasizes that common prayer is one of the highest acts of marital charity, and the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ's love, is the source of this unity.
7. Monogamy is not inbreeding.
Finally, the text warns against the risk of “endogamy,” that is, a closed “us” that can mortally wound charity. Marital charity has a missionary dimension, and lived unity becomes witness. This openness manifests itself in four key factors: the individual spaces of each spouse, the procreative dimension, sharing with other married couples, and the social sense of the couple, manifested especially in attention to the poor.
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