Clarification on the SIN of Masturbation

  • Thread starter Thread starter lou29
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lou29

Guest
I am a youth group student leader at my parish and I have close relationships with the people in my group. Recently a girl has come to me asking for guidance on an issue she has had for a while now, that being masturbation. Her question that I could not answer was: If I am not doing it out of lust or sexual pleasure, is masturbation still a sin? I told her to talk with a priest because I could not answer it. But I would like to know the answer to this question. She brought up the example of it being no different from a back massage or something similar, the reason and intention behind it is that it just feels good so why would that be a sin? If she is truly not committing the act while having lustful thoughts or is using it to relieve sexual tension, as many have said they use it for, what would the sin be at that point? I am a strong believer in the CCC and it very clearly states that this act is a sin, I understand the Church is very black and white but could someone explain further why this particular instance is a sin?
 
It is definitely a sin. A mortal one at that. The sexual organs are utilized during the marital embrace for the sole purpose of drawing husband and wife together in love and creating life. Any sexual contact outside of marriage, and with oneself is self serving and completely contrary to Gods gift of sexuality.
 
Take a second to consider other sins for which the person’s purpose is different than what we usually consider to be the reason for committing that sin:

Is it OK that I murder if I’m not doing so out of extreme hatred?
Is it OK that I steal if I’m not doing so out of avarice?
Is it OK that I lie if I’m not doing so in order to deceive?

Intrinsically evil acts can never, ever, under any circumstance be permitted. One’s purpose or intention does not matter one bit.

Masturbation is intrinsically evil.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
[2352] By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action. The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose. For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved.
Click to expand...
 
Kudos to her for bringing this up!

I found this helpful article. It goes over the document that is actually cited in the CCC, Persona Humana.
 
Last edited:
lou29 said:
I am a youth group student leader at my parish and I have close relationships with the people in my group. Recently a girl has come to me asking for guidance on an issue she has had for a while now, that being masturbation. Her question that I could not answer was: If I am not doing it out of lust or sexual pleasure, is masturbation still a sin? I told her to talk with a priest because I could not answer it. But I would like to know the answer to this question. She brought up the example of it being no different from a back massage or something similar, the reason and intention behind it is that it just feels good so why would that be a sin? If she is truly not committing the act while having lustful thoughts or is using it to relieve sexual tension, as many have said they use it for, what would the sin be at that point? I am a strong believer in the CCC and it very clearly states that this act is a sin, I understand the Church is very black and white but could someone explain further why this particular instance is a sin?
Click to expand...
It is unnatural vice, because it is not an act between man and woman, therefore disordered. Even the willfully entertained desire for disordered sexual pleasure is sinful. It is proper to turn the mind away from lustful thoughts rather than to encourage them. And the thoughts can be anything sexually disordered, natural or unnatural. Note that the apple in the Garden of Eden was not even to be touched, according that what Eve said (not to say that it pertained to sex, however).

Catechism
2351 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
You should discuss this question with the director of youth ministry st your parish or your pastor.
 
Why doesn’t she get the back massage instead if it is not to release tension? Also if she’s doing it because it feels good, how is she not doing it for pleasure?
 
This is the answer:

Our sexual organs are for the purpose of reproduction and pleasure, this is found is sex only. Masturbation (like contraception) violates the reproductive nature of our sex organs and thus is a disordered act.

It is very good that she brought this up, I am proud of her. Tell her to look up Matt Fradd and Cameron Fradd as well as Emily Wilson

podcasts.apple.com

‎Love People Use Things: 40: Stop saying women don't watch porn on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Love People Use Things, Ep 40: Stop saying women don't watch porn - Sep 2, 2018
podcasts.apple.com
So that you can answer these questions better in the future, read up on JPII’s _Theology of the Body, best explained by Christopher West
 
Last edited:
I’m so glad you brought up the Love People Use Things podcast!

I listened to LPUT awhile back and, I have to say, this episode has got to be my favorite one. I think anyone open to breaking their addictions (to specifically porn and masturbation), like she did, would love this episode. It is a true story that she was bold enough to share, and I especially love this episode for that reason.

Hope this is a good resource for that girl (and others)!
 
Masturbation typically involves sexual fantasies. The precise nature of these fantasies determine to a considerable extent how sinful it is. Lustful fantasies, or worse, perverse fantasies, make masturbation quite a grave sin. If one’s fantasies are of lust-free intimacy within marriage, the sinfulness is much reduced. The girl that raised the question apparently told you she entertains no fantasies at all during masturbation. That’s highly unusual, but if it’s true the sinfulness would indeed be rather limited. The problem is: no one can be sure she’s being truthful about this. She might even be dishonest with herself when she claims not to have any sexual fantasies. To be on the safe side, one would still have to discourage it.
 
Last edited:
Hoosier-Daddy said:
You should discuss this question with the director of youth ministry st your parish or your pastor.
Click to expand...
I agree. It’s a little concerning to me that a “youth group student leader” does not understand that masturbation is always a sin, whether you’re doing it out of lust or to relax or you’re bored or whatever. Although the OP did do the right thing by referring the girl in question to a priest to further discuss.

Massages done for relaxation or therapeutic benefits normally don’t involve the human sexual response. If somebody is getting a massage and getting sexually excited by having it, or by fantasizing about the massage therapist, then that person should not be getting massages from persons other than their spouse in the context of marital foreplay.
 
Last edited:
Whether an act is a mortal sin in a given instance, with a given person, depends on three factors:
  1. Involves serious matter;
  2. The person’s knowlege of this;
  3. Full consent of the will.
People tend to focus only on factor 1. Some theologians in the 1970s denied this, but the Church reaffirmed that masturbation is serious matter. But we can’t say it is always a mortal sin because we don’t know the other two factors. Best advice is to have the person talk to a priest.
 
AlbertDerGrosse said:
Is it OK that I murder if I’m not doing so out of extreme hatred?
Is it OK that I steal if I’m not doing so out of avarice?
Is it OK that I lie if I’m not doing so in order to deceive?
Click to expand...
But what if you kill someone in an act of self-defense or to protect someone else?
But what if you steal food to survive?
But what if you lie to protect yourself or someone else from harm?

There are always gray areas.
 
on_the_hill said:
But what if you kill someone in an act of self-defense or to protect someone else?
But what if you steal food to survive?
But what if you lie to protect yourself or someone else from harm?

There are always gray areas.
Click to expand...
Not really. Killing another human (edited), stealing, and lying are never “OK”.
The circumstances you mention serve to reduce the person’s culpability for doing the act.
They do not make the act “OK”.
 
Last edited:
Killing someone in self defense isn’t “murder” anyway, morally speaking. All murders are killings but not all killings are murders.
 
on_the_hill said:
But what if you kill someone in an act of self-defense or to protect someone else?
Click to expand...
I said murder. Murder is the unjustified killing of another person.
But what if you steal food to survive?
But what if you lie to protect yourself or someone else from harm?

There are always gray areas.
Click to expand...
There are only gray areas in culpability not in the intrinsic nature of the act. Violations of the decalogue are intrinsically evil. Murder, stealing, and lying are violations thereof, and therefore are intrinsically evil. You might not be guilty of a mortal sin by lying about something trivial or by stealing a dollar from a millionaire in order to buy bread for your starving family but you’ve still committed an intrinsically evil act.
 
I can imagine situations in which lying strikes me as not just acceptable but even morally obligatory…for example, someone lying and saying they’re not hiding any Jews when the Gestapo knocks.

I realize there’s a lot to unpack there, just thinking out loud.
 
on_the_hill said:
40.png
AlbertDerGrosse:
Is it OK that I murder if I’m not doing so out of extreme hatred?
Is it OK that I steal if I’m not doing so out of avarice?
Is it OK that I lie if I’m not doing so in order to deceive?
Click to expand...
But what if you kill someone in an act of self-defense or to protect someone else?
But what if you steal food to survive?
But what if you lie to protect yourself or someone else from harm?

There are always gray areas.
Click to expand...
That fact that morality is difficult (or has “gray areas”) does not direct us toward capitulation, but rather to work at it.

When it’s difficult, focus on the good at hand and make the evaluation. Some moral evaluations are excruciating and tragic. Sophie’s Choice type things.
We still have to step up.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top