Can Catholics refute polygamy?

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MyLordMyGod

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Hello everyone! I am very new to this Catholic Answers forums site and I thought I would get a question in that has been bothering me for quite some time.

Recently I read a topic on this site that talked about Polygamy not being a sin and how that person used the Bible (OT and NT) to make important claims:
•The Bible usually has something that says along the lines of “whoever DIVORCES his wife and marries another, they have committed adultery.” But the problem here is that you’re still married but with more than one spouse when it comes to polygamy. No where (that I’m aware of) in the Bible does it say “marriage between ONE man and ONE woman” or the same meaning but in different wording. That would totally leave out polygamy and make it not ok and sinful.

I want to know if there are any Catholic articles, videos, etc. that prove God never intended polygamy to be ok. And if you are using bible verses, make sure it doesn’t include the word “divorce” because you can commit polygamy and still be married and not divorced.

Also, a lot of people who think polygamy is ok will sometimes say that you can still have a union, perfect relationship with more than one spouse and God only condemned those in the Bible who used polygamy for oppressive or inequality purposes, not loving purposes. So I would like to see a Catholic apologists answer on that as well.

Please, if you find something, post the link with your comments so I can view the source and your comments.
 
But what I’m frustrated about is that some people will say that it is ok to marry multiple spouses while not divorcing anyone (unless I’m getting the definition of divorce wrong). So when someone commits polygamy, do they commit divorce? If so, why?
 
Catholicism does not accept polygamy. You may marry only one person in Catholicism. If you divorce, you must obtain an anulment to be eligible to marry again in the church. In fact, even if the church did not recognize your first marriage, it must be anulled in the church before you are eligible to get married to someone else in the church.

If you are already married, you are not eligible to marry additional people. If you do so outside of the church, at most only your first marriage would be considered valid and the rest would be considered to be sinful, adulterous relationships.
 
I would point you to the vows of marriage - ‘forsaking all others until death do you part’.

I am not sure about bible verses.

Does it say somewhere that a man will leave his mother and a woman will leave her home and the two shall become as one?

Or is that just the song? 🙂

 
Matthew 19:5
…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’

Ephesians 5:31
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

1 Timothy 3:12
Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households well;

Titus 1:6
if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of being profligate or insubordinate.
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po18guy said:
Matthew 19:5
…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’
Click to expand...
These words of Our Lord show that “becoming one” (unity that takes place in marriage) applies to only “two”. “Wife” is singular, not plural.
Click to expand...
 
[1605] Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone."92 The woman, “flesh of his flesh,” his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a “helpmate”; she thus represents God from whom comes our help.93 "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."94 The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been “in the beginning”: "So they are no longer two, but one flesh."95

92 Gen 2:18.
93 Cf. Gen 2:18-25.
94 Gen 2:24.
95 Mt 19:6.
 
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Polygamy has never been okay, including in the Old Testament. Like other ancient tribes the Israelites sometimes practiced polygamy but this was wrong. There wasn’t an express prohibition on it and this was a moral failure on their part.

Jacob as a righteous man was coerced into having multiple wives but it wasn’t what he wanted and it was a cross for him. He was in love with Rachel all along and he wanted to be with Rachel. David or Solomon deliberately had many wives because of their excess and this ruined both of them spiritually, especially Solomon who was an apostate to the end of his life as far as we know. If you read the OT books the instances of polygamy aren’t positive.
 
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