Q :
If a Muslim who has four wives and has children with each of the wives, wishes to convert to Catholicism, what should he do with the wives, since marriage in Catholicism is only between one man and one woman, and divorce is prohibited?
【 Question from 】 Malaysia 馬來西亞
Fr. Francis :
As far as I know, historically, the Church has consistently asked the husband to acknowledge only one of them to be his wife. He may continue to care for the others, but upon baptism he may only live and have marital relation with only one of them. This has created no small difficulty for not only muslims and people of polygamous cultures, but especially kings and emperors. Many of these did not convert, but would let the rest of the family to. And yet there were also those who recognized the truth, made arrangement to have the other wives and children provided for, let go of them, and became Christian.