Dear Editor: Columnist George Weigel describes the African church as “firmly committed to orthodoxy” and free from the “culturally entrenched but dehumanizing way of life” especially in terms of marriage.

He adds that “European Catholics might… ponder Pope Francis’ summons to learn from the church of the poor.”

It is precisely because of their poverty, their lack of education and opportunity, that African women cannot rely on the “permanent union of a man and a woman.” An African woman (and her children) unattached to the protection and provision of a man will die. Only if a man opens the safety and sustenance of his household can she survive.

In the context of some areas of African culture, polygamy saves the lives of thousands of African women. This is certainly consonant with Biblical tradition and the gospel understanding that the law was made for people, not people for the law.

FRANCES E. SCHAFER
Windsor Terrace