Hi,
If we look at Exodus 21: 1, we find ordinances for buying a slave. In verse 7 we read, “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do” etc. In verse 10 we read that if a man takes to himself another wife besides the wife that he bought as a slave, he shall not diminish the slave’s rights.
We’ve got a lot more going on here than just polygamy. In Mt. 19 when his disciples asked why Moses allowed divorce, Jesus responded in verse 8: “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” “Sexual” immorality here the Church interprets as “illicit.” Jesus fine-tuned such ordinances.
Just as we don’t find the Old Testament condemning slavery, so it doesn’t condemn polygamy. But with Christianity, a more refined morality emerged. So the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in #1645: “The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved affection. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive (with a reference to Familiaris Consortio 19).”
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
