Monogamy, Sologamy. Will the Catholic Church Bless Both?
Will Pope Francis authorize Catholic priests to conduct sologamous marriages?
That question has begun to emerge since the Vatican on Dec. 18, 2023, issued the Fiducia Supplicans, a “declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings,” which authorizes priests to bless same-sex couples. That brought praise from LGBTQ people and criticism from conservative Catholics.
Supporters of sologamy, the practice of marrying oneself, argue that it poses less of a conflict to traditional marriage (a union between a male and a female heterosexual) than do same-sex unions. And they claim there is less likelihood of a divorce, which is condemned by the Catholic Church.
There is no data as to the number of sologamous relationships. However, U.S. Census data shows there has been a decline in traditional marriage in the United States over the years and an increase in divorces. The Pew Research Center reported that in 2019, 38 percent of adults ages 25 to 54 were not married or living with a partner. That is a substantial increase from 1990, when it was 29 percent. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has reported a similar decline in the 38 developed countries that are its members.
Despite the lack of data, the BBC has reported that there has been an increase in sologamous relationships over the years as well as increasing publicity about sologamy.
“The act has also been the theme of episodes of popular U.S. TV shows such as Glee and Sex and the City, and there are now whole businesses … dedicated to helping people plan their solo events,” it reported. (Sex and the City star Carrie Bradshaw wed herself in a 2003 episode). Also attracting attention was the sologamous union of performance artist Gabrielle Penabaz. Penabaz described her self-marriage after a rough breakup as the “best wedding ever.” Since then she has officiated in ceremonies in which she married more than 1,500 people to themselves.
However, there have been several instances where sologamous women ended their relationships. Cris Galera, the famous Playboy cover model and porn performer, declared a ‘self-divorce’ 90 days after she married in Brazil in 2021. She said ended the marriage because she had “found someone special.”
Sologamous marriages are not legally recognized in any country in the world now, although, with the growing acceptance of same-sex marriages, supporters of sologamy hope to see a change. Elena Ketra, the Italian feminist artist, who is a supporter of sologamy, has created a website where one can obtain a sologamous marriage certificate.
It’s unclear whether the Pope’s decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples will open the door to the acceptance by the Catholic Church of sologamous marriages. Religious scholars have pointed out that the Pope’s declaration does not actually authorize clerics to marry same-sex couples, but only to “bless” them. The National Catholic Register, a conservative publication, has noted that the “declaration deems inadmissible any rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage — which is the ‘exclusive stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman naturally open to the generation of children’ — and what contradicts it.” And the declaration states “the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.”
