Masturbation Question

[RuthByzCat3]

Hey guys,
I found this quote from the Catechism on another thread:

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability

What is “affective immaturity?” And does a confession of masturbation include the lustful fantasy that provokes/accompanies it?

Thanks!

 

[Ashton_Gaskill]

Any lustful thoughts or inappropriate materials used while masturbating are a separate, yet related, sin, so they need to be confessed as well.

 

[baltobetsy]

Hey guys,
I found this quote from the Catechism on another thread:

What is “affective immaturity?” And does a confession of masturbation include the lustful fantasy that provokes/accompanies it?

Thanks!

What you need to know about that paragraph from the Catechism is that it is for priests who are helping people struggling with sins of impurity. It is not for the sinner to decide how much influence his immaturity or force of habit has on his responsibility for committing these sins.

“Affective” means emotional in this sense. So affective immaturity would be emotional immaturity.

 

[Theophorus]

Hey guys,

What is “affective immaturity?” And does a confession of masturbation include the lustful fantasy that provokes/accompanies it?

Thanks!

To my mind “affective immaturity” would relate to the persons ability to understand the gravity of the act they were committing. One cannot commit mortal sin without full knowledge(in such a case while the act would still be sinful the gravity would be lessened).

Mat 5:28 “But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” the “lustful fantasy” forms part of the sin. It is an act that denigrates the dignity of man and woman and it is an action that can lead to further occasions of sin. Take is from someone who knows, it is best to confess it in order to over come this sinful habit.

 

[edwest2]

This would be a good question for a priest. It is relatively common and it is up to the priest in Confession to determine where any individual might fall in terms of certain contributing/mitigating factors.

Peace,
Ed

 

[ANNE_2]

It is always best to quote the CCC in entirety.
Note consider it a mortal sin unless a good Priest tells you otherwise. All Adults and teens of normal mental capacity should know better.
When the word “grave” is used in the CCC it is a mortal sin.

CCC - " 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.
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.”

CCC - " 2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices."

 

[LeafByNiggle]

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability

So this just echoes the normal requirements for something to be a mortal sin - that it be done with full knowledge of the gravity of what you are doing? If that is the case, then such a qualifier would be applicable to each and every sin described in the Catechism. But no one has explained to me why this qualifier is specifically placed in the section on masturbation, and this language is seen no where else in the Catechism. There must have been some purpose for it being placed there and only there. Can someone tell me what that purpose was?