(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 11.25.2025).- The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith unveiled a newly approved text on marriage, it did so with a disarming simplicity: the mystery of two lives becoming one. Yet behind that biblical intuition lies a complex cultural moment that the Holy See considers too critical to ignore. The document, titled “Una caro (one flesh). In Praise of Monogamy,” was endorsed by Pope Leo XIV on November 21 and later presented to the press, marking a deliberate intervention in the global conversation on love, commitment, and the human desire for belonging.
The Note proposes a vision of monogamy rooted not in rule-making but in anthropology. Marriage, it states, is built on an unbreakable exclusivity, the kind that turns two people into a single story without dissolving their individual identities. In an era fascinated by limitless autonomy and ever-expanding relational models, the text argues for the enduring value of a love that chooses one person—and continues choosing them across time.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery, outlines three motivations behind the document. First is the technological ethos shaping contemporary culture, a worldview that risks convincing individuals that boundaries are simply obstacles and that relationships can be endlessly customized. Second is an honest dialogue with African bishops, who have insisted that the continent’s cultures, commonly associated with polygamous traditions, in fact contain profound testimonies favoring monogamous union. Third is the Western rise of polyamory, no longer hidden but increasingly promoted as a public alternative to traditional partnership.
Against this backdrop, the Note offers a counterproposal: the beauty of unity. Drawing from Christian theology, it connects the marital bond to the love between Christ and the Church, not as an abstract metaphor but as a source of strength for daily fidelity. Though primarily addressed to bishops, the Dicastery hopes the text will also serve engaged couples, young adults navigating relational complexity, and spouses seeking depth in their commitment.
One of the most striking themes is the insistence that monogamy is not a restriction but an opening. The document describes reciprocal belonging as the quiet place where intimacy finds room to grow. Rooted in the free consent of both spouses, this mutual gift is portrayed as a reflection of the divine communion itself. It requires a delicate respect: to love another is to understand that they cannot become a tool for one’s personal compensation or a shield against loneliness. The Note denounces possessiveness, psychological manipulation, and forms of control that suffocate the other under the guise of affection.
Instead, it proposes a relationship where two freedoms move toward each other without collapsing into fusion. Healthy love, it argues, knows when to draw close and when to allow space. Moments of solitude, far from threatening the union, can reveal its resilience. But prolonged emotional distance, the text warns, can dim the shared “we” that sustains a marriage. The equilibrium is subtle, grounded in trust, openness, and a readiness to face new challenges together.
The document also emphasizes that this reciprocal belonging is not static. It becomes a path of mutual growth, nourished by prayer and the sacraments. The Note calls conjugal charity the deepest form of friendship, one that turns spouses into companions who feel at home in each other’s presence. Such love transforms the understanding of sexuality as well, shifting it from impulse to self-giving, and recognizing it as a gift entrusted to the entire person, body and soul.
Fecundity, in this perspective, is an expression of love but not its measure. The text stresses that marital unity retains its full meaning even when children are not given, and it reaffirms the legitimacy of respecting natural rhythms of fertility.
Yet the authors do not ignore the fractures introduced by contemporary culture. They warn that the digital environment—where intimacy becomes spectacle and boundaries fade—demands a renewed pedagogy. The Church, they say, must help younger generations rediscover love as a profound human mystery, one that calls for responsibility and hope rather than instant gratification.
The document extends its reflection outward as well. Conjugal charity broadens into social responsibility: couples are encouraged not to close in on themselves but to offer their shared strength to the community. Attention to the poor, described by Pope Leo XIV as “a family concern for every Christian,” becomes a sign of a marriage that refuses the trap of self-absorption.
In its concluding pages, the Note insists on a foundational conviction: authentic marriage is a unity made of two, requiring such completeness that it cannot be shared with others. From this unity flows the indissolubility of the bond. The document’s closing tone is almost lyrical, suggesting that marital love, when lived fully, becomes an ever-unfolding promise—something finite that gestures toward the infinite.
The text also includes an extended exploration of monogamy through Scripture, the Church Fathers, magisterial teaching, and even twentieth-century literature and philosophy. But it ends with a whisper borrowed from Augustine: only someone who loves can understand what is being described.
In publishing this Note, the Vatican offers not merely a doctrinal clarification but an invitation. In a world captivated by endless possibility, it asks whether the greatest freedom might still lie in a single irrevocable gift.
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