Masturbation is a normal thing. There is nothing to be ashamed of. It is part of being a human being. It is a form of sex play or practice that prepares one when he or she has real sex. Supressing it leads to all types of problems. Masturbation is not a sin and is God’s way to teach you about your body.
Suppressing urges to masturbate does not lead to problems. Pedophiles and rapist freely admit that they started with masturbation, then pornography and their ‘urges’ became a progressive problem that they could not control. I’ve never heard of a rapist or pedophile who said that they starting hurting others because the suppressed their urge for self-gratification.
Why come to a Catholic forum and tell someone who is trying to follow his Catholic faith, that we, the Saints, even the Pope are wrong? This young man comes here for help in following his chosen faith and someone comes along saying, “no really, they’re wrong, don’t worry, do it all you want. It’s cool.” It’s reminscent of Genesis Chapter 3.
Well I do not know what the Catholic church teaching is on this but if it says that masturbation is a sin then it better perhaps do a bit of praying and change its rules that cause psychological damage and unnecessary guilt.
This is a pretty strong statement about our Pope, who is considering the Christian leader by many Protestants, as well as Catholics. Well, the Pope, the Magisterium, and thousands of Church leaders throughout the history of Christianity must be wrong. Let’s ignore their years and years of study, contemplation and prayer, 'cause I say so.
I think that one has to understand what the sin of lust is… True sex however where the man expresses his emotional love to the woman is not in the sin of lust. Of course there is a physical aspect to it, but it is not being used in sinful manner. Likewise if the fantacies are fantacies of expressing love to a woman, then it is not the sin of lust.
True sex? fantasizing is not an expression of emotional love, just the opposite. It is all about the person doing the fantasizing. Masturbation, is still pure self-gratification and dehumanizes the person that you claim to love. Fantasizing always objectifies. If the wife is not present and participating in the sexual act, she is objectified. period. Masturbation and fantasizing is a perversion of the life-giving physical experience between a man and his wife, designed by God. Sex between a husband and wife is physical, life-giving and honors all involved, the husband the wife and God (spiritually).
There is nothing life-giving about fantasizing or masturbation. In fact, those with this addiction are led into deeper depression when they give in to this compulsion and rapid increase of people with this addiction is telling. Even if you faulty premise were true, this man has no wife. How could he be fantasizing with love for a spouse he doesn’t even know yet and could not picture?
Surpressing fantacies of this is not healthy to one’s spiritual growth.
Disagree completely here. Fantasies, by their very nature are not real and both chastity and abstinence are profound ways of enhancing spiritual growth, as proven many, many times by the lives of the Saints and our priests, brothers and sisters.**
Genesis 38 8-10
8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Unite with your brother’s widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother’s line.”
9 Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother’s widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother.
10 What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too.
I’d say God feels pretty strongly about misusing this particular gift.
**
