“We set up this Commission made up of mainly theologians from different fields who are doing this work,” Fr. Simbine said, adding that members of the created Commission have the mandate to study “special issues”, including “the matter of polygamy”.
Deliberations of the “special” Commission are to be presented to the “Bishops of Africa” during the next SECAM Plenary Assembly scheduled to take place this July in Rwanda, he said at the April 25 press conference at Roussel House of Donum Dei Missionary Sisters in Karen in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN).
If SECAM members at the Plenary Assembly in Rwanda agree with the deliberations of the Commission on the issue of polygamy, Fr. Simbine said, “we will send the results to the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith. There we will start a new conversation between the experts of the Dicastery and our team in order to reach a final consensus and final decision on the matter.”
“The Church in Africa through the commission is also reflecting on how to accompany people living in this state,” the member of the Clergy of Mozambique’s Catholic Diocese of Xai-Xai added at the press conference on the sidelines of the meeting that SECAM, in collaboration with the African Synodality Initiative (ASI), organized to have the Synod on Synodality delegates from Africa “deepen” their insights about Synodality ahead of the October session in Rome.
He said that in Africa, there exists “different aspects” of the reality of polygamous unions, including persons who received the Gospel while in a polygamous situation, and others who became polygamous after receiving the Sacraments of initiation.
A theological discernment is likely to entail calling to mind the stance of the Catholic Church on polygamy in relation to the Church’s understanding of the institution of marriage and the Sacrament of Matrimony.
A theological discernment is likely to entail calling to mind the stance of the Catholic Church on polygamy in relation to the Church’s understanding of the institution of marriage and the Sacrament of Matrimony.
In November 2023, members of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA), who include Catholic Bishops in nine countries of Southern Africa tasked theologians in the region to “shed light” on the practices of traditional initiation and polygamy.
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