A Synodal Fruit: Introducing Polygamy into Canon Law

Thus, reports the cath.ch website, on November 22, 2024, a round table entitled “Intercultural Canon Law” was organized by the journal Nomok@non, “a university-based webjournal on religion and law,” the Swiss religious news agency explains.

Pertinently, the site notes that the question of cultural plurality “gained visibility on the occasion of the Synod on Synodality.” And at this forum, two “experts,” Professors Dr. Matthias Pulte of Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz and Jean Olivier Nke Ongono of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, of central African origin, discussed the value of current canon law.

The central point was the fact that this canon law is closely linked to, and even interwoven with, European culture, since it derives from Roman and Germanic law. This poses a problem of universalism, given that the Church is now spread across five continents, in very diverse cultural conditions.

After recalling the value and meaning of the family in African ecclesiology, and its central role, Prof. Nke Ongono addressed the fact that polygamy—a man having several wives—“is part of the culture in West and Central Africa,” a form of marriage which is not recognized by canon law.

But while the other speaker, Prof. Pulte, saw no room for maneuver in this situation, Prof. Nke Ongono insisted that polygamy was a reality and called for the development of pastorally adapted solutions. This did, however, provoke a certain amount of contestation.

But in the end it was accepted that “the Church comes to bring Christ, not a culture or an ethnic group.” And that “Europeans must first realize to what extent the current form of canon law and theology is closely linked to their own culture.” And that it therefore is appropriate to adapt it in different places to reflect the culture in which the Church has taken root.

A Few Remarks

That there are links between canon law and European culture is undeniable, since it was born and developed within a defined society, in a given period of history. But does this mean that it is not universal? Let us put the question another way: is dogma—on which canon law is built—universal? Or does it need to be adapted to different regions and cultures?

Moreover, the issue under discussion was decided by Our Lord Jesus Christ while living in a Semitic society—not a Roman or Germanic one—to abolish a form of polygamy, an abuse contrary to the divine institution of marriage. For it was indeed polygamy, successive and not simultaneous, that was practiced by certain members of the Judaic community at the time.

It is therefore an abysmal error—or rather, a colossal boastfulness when it comes to people who cannot be ignorant of the truth—to want to connect the prohibition of polygamy prescribed by canon law to a cultural issue linked to Roman or Germanic law, and to propose adapting it to cultures and places.

Finally, while we should not be eager to blame everything on synodality, it is undeniable that the “decentralization” that Pope Francis has been talking about for years and which was one of the important points discussed at the Synod—sometimes only to be set aside—can only facilitate or even encourage this kind of debate, which is destructive to the Faith and to discipline.