Christ's New Homeland--Africa: Contribution to the Synod on the Family by African Pastors by African Bishops

Author:African Bishops [Bishops, African]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781681496795
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2015-10-05T05:00:00+00:00

B. Unity, Indissolubility, and Openness to New Life

Repeating the constant teaching of the Church, the Code of Canon Law states that “the essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in Christian marriage obtain a special firmness in virtue of the sacrament” (can. 1056). In other words, once consummated, a valid marriage is indissoluble. But in the case of non-consummation, the law provides that the pope can dispense from a valid marriage.

Marriage, in the context we are examining, is the union between a man and a woman in the sight of God and in the sight of men. It is not about a union between a man and a man or between a woman and another woman. Among the Banso people in Northwestern Cameroon, the Bamileke of the West, or again among the Bakweri of the Southwest and the Bassa people of the Central Region, for example, marriage is a contract, not between two persons, but between two families, two societies, two peoples. Therefore, a woman marries a family and not a man, but she will live her married life with one member of that family. A man marries the family that gave him the woman, but he will live his married life only with his wife. Here marriage is governed by three fundamental laws: indissolubility, openness to fertility, and the unity of marriage.

In Matthew 19, at verse 4, Jesus himself says: “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 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’? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” This passage lays bare the law of the unity of marriage, which states that a man may take only one wife; at the same time, it emphasizes the indissoluble character of marriage. Moreover, in the Book of Genesis we read the following: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it’ ” (1:27). This passage shows that the spouses must be open to fertility.

We find these values of marriage in all matrimonial cultures.

Among Christians, they take on an exceptional value. A ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any power or for any reason except death. A ratified but unconsummated marriage can be dissolved by a dispensation granted by the Supreme Pontiff. Since it is a question of the unity of marriage, the conjugal bond is exclusive, so that simultaneous polygamy is, among Christians, by positive divine law, not only illicit but invalid. This thesis affirms three things:

• As long as it lasts, the conjugal bond between two spouses does not allow a new matrimonial contract with a third person;

• Marital union with

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