"masturbation is not a sin"

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Perhaps someday soon a group of rogue liberal priests and bishops will declare masturbation to be a sacrament. Freud already has and many seem to be happy to follow his lead.

CDL
 
I am so proud of you Dauphin ā€“ that you are ardent in your journey of faith ā€“ that you responded to the priest the way you did ā€“ and that you have written to your archbishop. šŸ‘ šŸ‘ šŸ‘

We must pray for our priests daily. And we must pray that all of us Catholics may strive to be true witnesses to our faith the way you are.

If you do not receive a satisfactory response to your letter within a reasonable amount of time, perhaps you should notify the papal nuncio.
 
pmoo said:
Iā€™ve also never heard that mortal sin is rare. Why are there always lines at my church for confession then?
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One does not have to have just mortal sins to confess to go to confession; all types of sins can be confessed. šŸ™‚
 
Wow, a Catholic Palagian. I thought they were all Episcopalians.

Palagianism denies the fall, and original sin. It presupposes we are created the way God wanted us to be (there was no fall), therefore anything part of our nature is good. The only mortal sin is to turn away from God deliberately.

Palagianism is a heresy.
 
Mimi said:
Iā€™m going to go Ask an Apologist or look it up in the CCC, but I thought the seal of the confessional applied to the penitent (the one who comes to confess) as well as to the priest. I remember reading that somewhere.

Shocking, although not so much anymore : ( that priests do not know their faith or practice it. I think another Reformation is on the way, via Theology of the Body!

God bless,
Mimi
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My question is a little OT, but necessary:

Mimi, when you say ā€œanother Reformation is on the way, via Theology of the Bodyā€, it sounds like you are saying that there will be another split from the Church, with TOTB as an instigating factor.

My point is that you seem to be casting TOTB in a negative light. Was that your purpose? I found it to be extremely orthodox.

Peace,
Dante
 
You did the right thing contacting the bishop. I hope you get something back soon. Feel comforted that you did confess and have been forgiven.

I too am dealing with a priest that gave me misinformation. Today I am going to confession about having a tubal ligation in '06 for which my confessor gave his blessing. I trusted that he knew what he was talking about, and a grave mistake has been made. Today I will have that sin forgiven.
 
This is a good thing that you did, notifying your bishop. If possible, please keep us informed of the situation as it evolves.
 
JenniferMoon said:
I too am dealing with a priest that gave me misinformation.
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Unfortunately, that happens. Priests can make mistakes. Itā€™s the laityā€™s responsibility to educate ourselves using the many resources we have available to us. Thank God for the grace that you were eventually able to find out the truth.
 
Dauphin said:
I went to confession about half an hour ago and Iā€™m still upset by the experience.

I went to confess the sin of masturbation. Itā€™s not something I would normally discuss on these forums, but what the priest said after I confessed disturbed me deeply. Here are some of his words as best I can remember them:

ā€œI went on sabbatical recently and consulted with other priests about masturbation, to discover its status as a sin. The view of masturbation has changed dramatically. Itā€™s very different from what I was taught in seminary many years ago. We just donā€™t talk about masturbation anymore. Itā€™s part of human nature, and people cannot be held responsible for acting according to their nature. The churchā€™s position on this changed after Vatican II. We now know that mortal sin is extremely rare. To commit a mortal sin, you have to genuinely hate God. Virtually no one commits mortal sin.ā€

I was extremely upset, and was sorely tempted to respond along the lines of:

ā€œSo if itā€™s alright to act according to my nature, can I just have sex with anyone I feel lust for? Or is an act of conjugal love outside of marriage unacceptable while a selfish act of masturbation outside of marriage is acceptable? That doesnā€™t make a lick of sense. If we go this far down this modernist road of ā€˜God doesnā€™t care what you do with your genitaliaā€™, we may as well throw out the churchā€™s entire moral teaching on sexuality. If our actions are justified by ā€˜our naturesā€™, who needs God?ā€

Instead, I responded:

ā€œI will continue to view this act as a mortal sin, with all respect.ā€

The priest then quickly gave me absolution (no act of contrition). I said ā€œthank you, fatherā€ and left.

Your thoughts? He seemed to give the impression that the entire Canadian church thinks this way (I know it doesnā€™t, Iā€™ve had at least five good confessors who acknowledge the gravity of this sin). I should also point out that this confession took place in a Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Kingston. Every other experience Iā€™ve had there was fully orthodox, but now Iā€™m afraid to enter the confessional again just to be told I shouldnā€™t be there.
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Pray for the priest, and for those he consulted with about this. In the meantime, I suggest you find another confessor.
 
Dauphin said:
Iā€™m considering sending his office an email to request that he go over this subject with the priests at the Cathedral. Does anyone have any authoritative church documents declaring masturbation a grave sin? I want to be able to back up my position.
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Objectively, masturbation is a mortal sin but culpability can be lessoned by the force of habit, etc. Either way, itā€™s definitely required that you confess this sin every time you fall. Clearly, masturbation is not harmless and definitely is accompanied by lust which always is disordered. Confession and absolution will give you the grace to resist this barrier to holiness. Iā€™ll pray for you and this priest.
 
Insomniac said:
This is a good thing that you did, notifying your bishop. If possible, please keep us informed of the situation as it evolves.
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I havenā€™t received a response yet, but Iā€™ll post here if I do. Catholic Answers doesnā€™t allow me to post any private correspondence, but Iā€™ll give everyone a general idea of the response.
 
Now Iā€™m even more worried about the effect this priest is having: the cathedral just shortened confession from 2 hours to 1 hour on Saturday (daily confession remains before 12:10 p.m. Mass).

I hope this isnā€™t because people are being told mortal sin is rare. The lines for confession have always been very long, and now Iā€™m very fearful that this priest is driving people away from this sacrament.
 
Dauphin said:
I havenā€™t received a response yet, but Iā€™ll post here if I do. Catholic Answers doesnā€™t allow me to post any private correspondence, but Iā€™ll give everyone a general idea of the response.
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Be prepared for a bland, canned response that doesnā€™t say anything and supports whatever the priest has said or done. Even if somebody in the chancery wakes up to the fact that there is a problem with clergy who donā€™t understand the difference between grave and venial sin, between objective matter and subjective culpability, they wonā€™t be able to do much about it.

I have had this very discussion with a priest, who works with our teen group. He just kept on saying: No, itā€™s not a sin any more.
 
What is with this idea that mortal sin is rare? As I posted earlier this week, we were told the same thing at Mass this past Sunday. In fact, as I posted, the priest told us he has never committed mortal sin, and we probably havenā€™t, either!

You definitely did the right thing by going to your Bishop. This wrong and dangerous theology has got to be stopped.

Please let us know what happens with your Bishop, and God Bless you.

Mary
 
Maybe this is off-topic and deserves itā€™s own thread (if so, I ask the moderators to split it off), but what about those folks who take the advise given and go off for the rest of their lives continuing to masturbate (since they were told that it is not a sin), never confess it again (since we are REQUIRED to confess ONLY mortal sins and they were told that masturbation is NOT a mortal sin) and even receive communion for the rest of their lives?

Would the people be free of sin since they were guided incorrectly?

Would the priest be held accountable for their sins for failing to properly guide his flock?

What about if the priest got this direction for other priests that he trusted and/or his superiors and believe it to be correct ā€“ as, appears to be the situation in this particular case.

Would anyone be held accountable for the sins of folks who followed this advise?
 
Micki said:
Check the catechism of the church.

Micki
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I have had one or two people come to me and ask about masturbation because one priest shrugged it off as no sin and another had said sure is. I did not give a direct answer that contradicted either priest, I just said look at such and such a place in the Catechism and follow it. That is guaranteed as safe for your moral integrity.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Maybe this is off-topic and deserves itā€™s own thread (if so, I ask the moderators to split it off), but what about those folks who take the advise given and go off for the rest of their lives continuing to masturbate (since they were told that it is not a sin), never confess it again (since we are REQUIRED to confess ONLY mortal sins and they were told that masturbation is NOT a mortal sin) and even receive communion for the rest of their lives?

Would the people be free of sin since they were guided incorrectly?

Would the priest be held accountable for their sins for failing to properly guide his flock?

What about if the priest got this direction for other priests that he trusted and/or his superiors and believe it to be correct ā€“ as, appears to be the situation in this particular case.

Would anyone be held accountable for the sins of folks who followed this advise?
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It is quite possible that no one would be held accountable if they sincerely believed this fable. I just for the life of me have never been able to figure out how any priest could do this with a clean comfortable conscience unless the training in our seminaries has completely broken down. I suppose they could have been seduced by some of our contemporary psychologists who see us as having ā€œmonkeyā€ brains.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Maybe this is off-topic and deserves itā€™s own thread (if so, I ask the moderators to split it off), but what about those folks who take the advise given and go off for the rest of their lives continuing to masturbate (since they were told that it is not a sin), never confess it again (since we are REQUIRED to confess ONLY mortal sins and they were told that masturbation is NOT a mortal sin) and even receive communion for the rest of their lives?

Would the people be free of sin since they were guided incorrectly?
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I suppose that we need to look back at the 3 conditions required for a mortal sin, and remember that knowledge that it is a grave sin is one of the three requirements. Then, however, it is a matter of whether the person was ignorant as a result of being wrongly guided, if the person was ignorant as a result of spiritual apathy, or if the person was just willing to wait to hear what he wanted to hear, being a victim of the 2 Timothy 4:3 condition that was prophesized about. So, this one would be a difficult question to answer in that the answer may not be consistent for all people across the board. That is just my take on it, and I may be wrong.
 
My reply is different than the majority. I learned in a catholic school that it is not a sin. You love yourself and your body and it is not harmful in your relationship to God. That was about 20 years ago. A nun was teaching the class and that was how it was discussed. Of course no one asked questionsā€¦embarrassing at the time, but the topic was not a long discussion. It was actually only one paragraph long in our religion book. I am not trying to confuse anyone, just thought you would be interested in knowing that this was taught in a catholic setting to all children.
 
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