i a 16 year catholic and i just want to know if mastrubation is a sin considered a sin to catholics, is it like a adulterness or is it not?
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Is masturbation is adulteress, if people masturbate, it is considered a sin to catholics because i a catholic!
September 15th, 2008 · 13 Comments
Tags: Masturbation
13 responses so far ↓
1 usmcsushi // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
No way man!!!! Masturbation is great first thing in the AM….Do it everyday. As far as a sin, I dont think God cares if you masturbate or not. If he does then Alot of men are going to hell.
2 hfmgr06 // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
According to the Catholic faith masturbaition is a sin. congratulations join the rest of us sinners. It is not classified as adultery, but more like some of the rules and stipulations that the catholic church has decided to make doctrine like using birth control/condoms is a sin. Have faith in God and all will be well.
3 scarletbegonias9 // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
Thats the dumbest thing I ever heard. Catholics believe a lot of ridiculous things are sins. There is nothing wrong with masturbating and it is completely natural. If anyone from your church/bible tells you otherwise you should consider looking into another religion.
4 dukalink6000 // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
If you understand the prohibition, it comes into better focus, my friend.
Sexual knowledge was very thin back then.
It waws felt that a man had a finite amount of seed, so it needed to go into the woman to keep the tirbe alive. You could be one birth away form extinction.
Masturbation is also a kind of self-love, done out of lust and desire.
We now recognize that the sex drive is a very powerful urge. It is bad enough to have pre-marital sex and masturbation is a minor blip compared to that.
Aldultery is something different as you pledged your marriage with God as a witness and there is a commandment against that.
If masturbation is a sin, it is venal at best.
Please do not worry about it. God understands these things.
P.S. I am a Catholic myself and Father Giles explained this all to me back in 1971.
5 unikh_nkh // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
This is obviously a difficult and delicate area of morality. Let me begin with what the Catechism says:
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."[137] "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."[138]
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 or even extenuate moral culpability.
The Catechism is clear about the immorality of masturbation. The reason is obvious enough: Jesus teaches that the use of sex is for marriage. (And within marriage to express the total self-giving which is always open to procreation.) C. S. Lewis expresses Jesus' teaching about sex as "outside of marriage, unmitigated abstinence." He said that when he was a confirmed bachelor–he did not marry Joy till he was in his mid-fifties. Lewis readily conceded the great difficulty of this teaching. But it is not an impossible ideal.
While the Catechism notes that masturbation is "instrinsically and gravely disordered," it adds an interesting paragraph about subjective moral responsibility. It notes different situations which might make the act less serious or even nullify moral culpability. Perhaps the confessor referred to above views it that way. The confessor-penitent relationship is an intimate one and I could only make some general comments.
But what is called realism is in fact a truncated view of reality. Let me illustrate with a story. I knew a man who fell in love with a young woman. It was not the first time for him, but this was different. Something about her reached deep into his imagination, his psyche. However, she did not correspond to his romantic feelings. That seemed to only make it worse. He thought about her when he woke up in the morning and when he laid down at nite–and most moments in between. One day in his misery he blurted his tortured feelings to a priest. The priest listened carefully and finally said to him, "She is not the one you want."
"What do you mean, Father?" the man asked.
The priest looked him in the eyes and said slowly, "The one you want is God."
It seems to me that masturbation, especially when it becomes chronic, is like that. It is a melancholy effort to satisfy oneself. And yet the only one who can do that is He who made us for Himself. Recognizing that truth does not mean a person will instantly give up masturbation. The man who realized it was not the girl who would ultimately make him happy continued to think about her. But the realization is the first step.
After acknowledging that masturbation has become a form of idolatry, something more needs to be done. I think the most practical advice was given by Bishop Fulton Sheen. He says what we should do is not so much directly confront immorality, but squeeze it out of our lives. That is, to fill our lives with things that are good so that the devil has little room. When I was a teenager, the most sensible priests would recommend things like taking up a hobby. Even something as innocuous as stamp collecting can create a space where bad thoughts are effectively kept at bay. Of course that is one of the important functions of work. I would not recommend falling into being a workaholic (altho I cannot say too much about that since it is one of the few vices I have never been attracted to).
But even work and sound activities like friendship, reading, hobbies, etc., are not enough to keep away all sexual thoughts. They in fact can come unexpectedly and lead to the temptation of masturbation. And as the Catechism notes, it can be a very ingrained habit. I would only say to not despair. Ultimately it depends on God's intervention or grace. One of my favorite chapters in The Great Divorce is about the young man with the lizard on his shoulder. The lizard constantly whispers in his ear and it seems like life would be empty without the creature. But finally he allows the angel to kill it. But when it dies, it turns into a mighty horse which carries him into heaven. Do not give up on confession and prayer, even it is rather half-hearted like Augustine, "Lord, give me chastity, but not yet." That prayer will also be answered as it was so dramatically for St. Augustine.
6 Stephen // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
Yes, masturbation is a sin… A mortal sin, in fact. Please don't listen to these people who think that life revolves around masturbation… they're just losers, and they're trying to lure you into a trap you can't get out of. Masturbation is contrary to the purpose for which God gave you a sexual drive. This purpose is twofold:
1. To show unity to your partner (marriage is obviously a prerequisite to this unity).
2. To give life.
Masturbation violates both of these, as do such things as homosexual acts, contraception, etc. You don't want to be in the same category of these things, do you? Don't masturbate!
7 ted.nardo // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
All sin starts with a thought. When you're masturbating, you're are thinking about someone else in a sexual manner. You are visualizing someone and fantasizing. That's where the sin is. If you look at the Tenth Commandment, about coveting your neighbors wife and goods, that's a thought process that leads to sin.
8 infinity // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
Yes, masturbation is a mortal sin. Jesus said that if you lust, you have already committed adultry in your heart.
Sexual intercouse is given to us as a way to participate in the creative work of God. When a husband and wife make love, they become one flesh according to the Bible. Their love can give life to another. In this way the family is an image of God, the Holy Trinity.
When we use our ability to immitate God in a way that it was not intended for, we masterbate it. The word masterbate means to use something (anything) in a way other than that which it is intended for. So, there is a very good reason why it's called masterbation. Mis-use of anything is sinful; how much more for something as sacred as our sexuality.
9 Danny H // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
Yes, it is a sin. Go to confession and talk to your priest about it. He can give you some very good counsel.
10 steve // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
I only know of one verse in the Bible that addresses masturbation, and it does not really apply to this question.
Gen 38:7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
Gen 38:8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
Gen 38:9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
Gen 38:10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
I do not believe the simple act of masturbation in itself is sinful, BUT, the impure thoughts that are generally generated in your mind during the ACT of masturbation ARE sinful (unless of course you are considering your spouse in a holy and pure manner!).
11 imacatholic2 // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
Judeo-Christian tradition has taught for thousands of years:
1. Single people should be celibate.
2. Married people should be faithful to each other (adultery is wrong).
The Catholic Church recognizes the power of sex when it teaches, "Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul."
Masturbation is contrary to the human dignity of the person and anyone about whom the person has lustful thoughts, and the dignity of human sexuality.
Therefore masturbation is a sin against chastity but it is not nearly as bad as the sin of adultery.
Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person. A chaste person's body and spirit lives in unity and opposes any behavior that would impair that unity.
The purpose of sex is to bring a husband and wife closer and to create human life.
With love in Christ.
12 tr2thhrt // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
Well first of all in the new testament it was done God told him to spill him self on the ground.It is natural,You can not get a diease from it or get anyone preganet.It is self exsplority.It lets you get to know your own body and what feels right to you…….
13 AMERICAN_YANKEE35 // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:55 am
DUDE..USE THE HAND ITS OK..ITS NORMAL.
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