The CCC
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."138 “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."139
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.
This is not really hard to explain to someone. It keeps the gravity while also explaining the culpability. If the Youcat is supposed to be a starting off point and one that is easier for younger minds to understand then it fails miserably. It actually does the opposite. Grasping the Youcat’s phrasing and reasoning on this particular issue is quite more nuanced and harder to explain than the CCC. It would require a deeper dive into theology, human relationships and sin than the actual CCC. By just using social reasons and using the phrase “we don’t demonize masturbation” the Youcat digs in the sandbox of ambiguity.
As a parent, catechist, and youth leader, I have a real problem with the treatment of a common subject. Every year on a youth group night, we separate the boys from the girls and the boys hike up a mountain with a Cross. We pray the rosary for all the women (by name) in our lives. Mothers, girls at school, siblings etc. We give them the chastity talk, talk about virtue, honor, control, respect, and of course masturbation.
Now, you certainly know more about the confessional than I do. But as a father, as a parent, our family discusses confession, and chastity matters. If my teen came to me and said, "Father said in my last confession that we should not demonize Masturbation, I would speak to the priest (who probably could not address it at all) and then my child would not be going to that priest for absolution.
Crack open an 8th grade algebra book. Delve into shakespear tradgedies or Homer. Read in depth analysis of napoleon, or asian dynasties. Than plop a youcat down and say, here. The CCC is too hard to understand for you.
