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 | Fr. John F. Harvey: "So often the habit of masturbation becomes compulsive, that is to say, the person is not able to control masturbatory activity in spite of great efforts to do so. Usually such a person is lacking in insight and needs therapy in conjunction with spiritual direction." 1 |
| E. Michael Jones: "The struggle with the temptation to masturbate is the smithy in which adolescents form their character. They either learn how to control themselves, with all that that entails, or they do not, with all of the self-loathing projected as hatred of authority which that entails. Masturbation is, in a sense, the root sexual evil first of all from a developmental point of view — it is the child’s introduction to sexual sinning — but also because all other sexual sinning is at its root masturbatory." 18 |
The history of Catholic teachings about masturbation:
A study by Giovanni Cappelli of the church's stance on masturbation during the first millennium CE shows that:
| The Bible is silent on the topic. |
| None of the Apostolic Fathers wrote about masturbation. |
| The first mention of masturbation within the Catholic Church is found in sixth century CE penitentials. 1 These were books or a set of church rules concerning the sacrament of penance. They were first developed by priests as unofficial handbooks that gave standard penances for the most commonly confessed sins. |
In commenting on Cappelli's findings, Fr. John Harvey suggests that silence by the Apostolic Fathers does not necessarily mean either a tacit approval or indifference towards masturbation. Their silence may have been caused by their prime concern being interpersonal sexual sins. 1
However, the Church has placed much greater emphasis on masturbation later in its history. For example, Thomas Aquinas (circa 1225 to 1274 CE) is the most famous classical proponent of natural theology, founded the Thomistic school of philosophy and is considered by many Catholics to be the Church's greatest theologian. 16 He taught that God designed the penis to insert sperm into a woman's vagina. Any other use of the penis or destination for the sperm is unnatural and a "grave offense to the sagacious plan" of God. This concept makes a number of sexual behaviors immoral: bestiality, anal sex, oral sex, masturbation, and any other activity that prevents conception.
Alan Soble of The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes:
"Aquinas's line of thought yields an anatomical criterion of natural and perverted sex that refers only to bodily organs and what they might accomplish physiologically and to where they are, or are not, put in relation to each other." 16
The church has historically viewed sexuality as having been designed only for procreation. In recent decades, the unitive role that sexual behavior plays in strengthening the marriage bond has been acknowledged. Still, sexual acts that cannot lead to conception are condemned as being against natural law. Also, any sexual act performed outside a marriage of one man and one woman is a sin. Masturbation meets these criteria.
Persona Humana:
Pope Paul VI issued a declaration in 1975 on many aspects of human sexuality. 2 It is titled: "Persona Humana - Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics." Priests and other officials in the Roman Catholic church are not allowed to offer alternative opinions in public, or even to suggest that change is needed.
Some of the pope's comments in Persona Humana apply to masturbation:
| "...masturbation constitutes a grave moral disorder..." |
| "...masturbation is an intrinsically and seriously disordered act...the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside normal conjugal relations essentially contradicts the finality of the faculty. For it lacks the sexual relationship called for by the moral order, namely the relationship which realizes 'the full sense of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love.' All deliberate exercise of sexuality must be reserved to this regular relationship." |
| "Even if it cannot be proved that Scripture condemns this sin by name, the tradition of the Church has rightly understood it to be condemned in the New Testament when the latter speaks of 'impurity,' 'unchasteness' and other vices contrary to chastity and continence." |
| "The frequency of the phenomenon in question is certainly to be linked with man's innate weakness following original sin; but it is also to be linked with the loss of a sense of God, with the corruption of morals engendered by the commercialization of vice, with the unrestrained licentiousness of so many public entertainments and publications, as well as with the neglect of modesty, which is the guardian of chastity." 3 |
Church Catechism:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) condemns masturbation in Part 3: "Life in Christ;" Section 2: "The Ten Commandments;" Article 6: "The Sixth Commandment;" Topic: "Offenses against chastity."
| 2351: "Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes." |
| 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." 4 |
The reference to the Magistgerium's "constant tradition" of opposition to masturbation appears to conflict with Giovanni Cappelli's findings that the first mention of masturbation in Church documents dated to the sixth century CE.
It would appear that the CCC condemns all pleasure derived from genital stimulations, whether masturbation is continued until orgasm or not.
Is masturbation a mortal sin or a venial sin?
The Roman Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial and mortal. Venial sin is relatively minor in nature, but a single mortal sin can determine one's eternal fate. It can cause a person to be separated from God, and to spend eternity in Hell which the church considers to be both a place and a state of existence. The church also teaches that there is no mechanism by which a mortal sin can be forgiven after death.
However, the Church teaches that a person guilty of a mortal sin can confess it to a priest who may give the individual absolution from the sin. This is only possible if the penitent is truly sorry for their actions and sincerely plans to not repeat the sin.
Being a "grave moral disorder" and "an intrinsically and gravely disordered action" the Church teaches that even a single act of masturbation can theoretically send a person to Hell, if two additional factors are present:
| The person must commit the act with full knowledge of the sin and of its seriousness. |
| "It must be committed with deliberate and complete consent." 5 |
The second factor might lessen the severity of the sin so that it not a mortal sin. Here, Catholic theologians have a range of interpretations:
| Grace MacKinnon, a contributor to the Catholic Exchange, writes: |
"The Church recognizes, for example, that in the practice of masturbation, psychological factors including adolescent immaturity, lack of psychological balance, and even ingrained habit can influence a person’s behavior, and this could lessen or even eliminate moral responsibility....If they are in doubt about the morality of any sexual activity, a person should talk to his or her confessor, a priest. After listening to all of the circumstances and conditions surrounding an individual’s actions, he will make a judgment and give the proper guidance." 6
| Father Joseph Farraher writes: |
"...for a person to be formally guilty of a mortal sin of masturbation his act must be a fully deliberate choice of what he fully realizes is seriously sinful....if there is no free choice of the will there is no guilt of sin at all even if the person is aware of what he is doing." 1
| "Father Philip" at Catholic Q and A writes: |
"...a careful, prayerful, and thorough reading of the "Catechism" leads us to conclude that masturbation can be a "serious mortal sin", but we must also admit that the "Catechism" foresees situations in which masturbation may not be 'a serious mortal sin'."
"Circumstances that range from 'affective immaturity' to the 'force of acquired habit' to psychological factors such as anxiety and even to 'social factors' can mitigate a person's moral culpability if she/he performs the objectively disordered act of masturbation. In such a case, the 'Catechism' is insistent that masturbation would not be 'a serious mortal sin' because of any one of those extenuating reasons."
"To be sure, neither I nor my colleagues in Catholic Campus Ministry would encourage anybody to masturbate. The teaching of the Church is explicit on this topic, and therefore, we would not encourage something the Church says is 'disordered'."
"At the same time, though, faithfully teaching what the Church actually teaches calls me and my colleagues in Catholic Campus Ministry to recognize the Church's wisdom and God's grace in saying that masturbation is not always and in every case gravely sinful....""As the 'Catechsim of the Catholic Church' makes clear, masturbation may not be a 'mortal sin' if the extenuating circumstances identified in the "Catechism" are found, by a competent moral guide, who has a well-formed conscience, to be present in the life of one who has masturbated. In such a situation the objectively disordered action of masturbation, while not 'acceptable,' can hardly be considered a 'serious mortal sin'..." 12
| Father John Ruffo takes a much more liberal position: |
"The Church’s official position on masturbation: 'The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.' That’s a quote from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "
"Can masturbation be sinful? I think the only time masturbation could be considered seriously sinful is if someone is using this activity to avoid one’s obligations to one’s spouse. Modern moral theologians tell us that masturbation is a normal part of one’s psychosexual development. Most people go through phases of masturbation, during adolescence, for example, individuals separated from their spouses in war time, the elderly, and others in unique situations of life. It’s hoped that individuals not become fixed or stuck in only this form of sexual expression, but rather develop a relationship with another person with whom one can express one’s own sexuality in an appropriate loving and intimate way." 13
Can a person lose their virginity as a result of masturbating?
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia's entry under "Virginity:"
"There are two elements in virginity: the material element, that is to say, the absence, in the past and in the present, of all complete and voluntary delectation, whether from lust or from the lawful use of marriage...Virginity is irreparably lost by sexual pleasure, voluntarily and completely experienced." 14
Participants at Catholic Answers Forums debated whether a voluntary act of masturbation would represent "sexual pleasure" and thus result in a loss of virginity from a theological perspective. There was a general consensus that:
"....sexual pleasure intentionally felt is loss of virginity according to the traditional catholic definition. Still, that is not what "virginity" means socially or culturally." 15
We will attempt to confirm this from a Catholic authority.
Implications of the church's teaching on masturbation:
If the Church's teaching is true, then there are a number of implications associated with masturbation:
| Timing: This is of paramount
importance. If a person experiences three events on a single day:
|
the church teaches that they will almost certainly go to either Purgatory or Hell. Direct transfer to Heaven is restricted to very few individuals who have led exemplary lives.
If the events happen in the above order, then the individual would go to Purgatory for a finite interval of torture. Eventually they will be sufficiently purified to enter Heaven and the presence of God. But if the order of events is altered, such that they go to confession, commit a mortal sin and then die, they would go to Hell to be tortured without any hope of release or mercy. This could be torture for an infinitely long interval for a single sin lasting a few minutes.
| Medical implications: Studies have shown that frequent masturbation during youth and young adulthood partly protects males against prostate cancer later in life. Thus, Roman Catholic men who follow the church teachings on masturbation can expect to experience a greater chance of death from prostate cancer. The church's ban on masturbation appears to be in opposition to its normal pro-life position. |
| Salvation implications: Surveys show that about 95% of male adults and 65 to 70% of female adults masturbate. If we assume that the rate of masturbation is more or less equal across all religions, then these data will hold for non-Catholics as well as Catholics. So if even one incidence of masturbation during a person's lifetime rises to the level of a mortal sin, their eternal fate is threatened. Fortunately for Catholics, they have access to confession and absolution that can restore their salvation. The fate of non-Catholics is less certain. Since Vatican II (1962 to 1965 CE) the Church has taught that salvation is possible for non-Catholics. But the church is short on specifics. |
Masturbation as part of a medical treatment:
About one in eight opposite-sex couples are infertile. The percentage appears to be growing. Most can be helped by fertility clinics who use various techniques such as intrauterine insemination (IUI) -- popularly called artificial insemination -- and in vitro fertilization (IVF).
An article in This Rock magazine states:
"By and large, Protestant theologians agree that infertility procedures that are homologous or exclusive—using only the husband’s sperm and/or his wife’s eggs—are biblically defensible. Because of its profound understanding of the dignity of the human person, though, the Catholic Church holds that no form of artificial insemination or [Assisted Reproductive Technology] (ART) is permissible."
"The primary reason the Church opposes IUI and IVF is that these techniques frustrate the unitive aspect of the marital act....the unitive end of marriage encompasses the personal and spiritual good of the spouses themselves. One indication of this breach in unity is that artificial interventions (excepting a tubal ovum transfer with sperm) always require masturbation.""...babies produced through IUI and IVF are just as cute, loved, and wonderful as any other children. The joy they bring to their parents is also just as real, if not more intense. This happiness, though, comes at the expense of the babies who have been denied the right to be conceived through a personal act. Needless to say, children created through artificial techniques are persons; they have eternal souls. Once conceived they also have a right to be loved and protected by their parents and society. Still, no one would say that every act that results in the conception of a child is morally licit. Rape, for instance, may also result in the conception of a child. 17
Overcoming masturbation:
Catholic Answers makes a number of suggestions to its followers who wish to reduce or eliminate masturbation activity from their life:
| Pray to God frequently, asking him for the grace "to be pure." |
| Attend Mass often. |
| Pray three Hail Mary's each day for purity of mind, body, and heart. |
| Frequent the Sacrament of Reconciliation. |
| Read Scripture. |
| Pray the Rosary. |
| Make the Stations of the Cross. |
| Develop a devotion to Saint Joseph. |
| Confess their sin after every masturbation. |
| Eliminate pornography or erotic images, music with sexual overtones, etc from their home. |
| Reduce the amount of TV watching; increase exercise or some similar diversion. |
| Set an intermediate target -- say to not masturbate for a few days or a week, etc. After each success, increase the time interval. |
| "The prize of true love awaits those that are truly free, because they are the only ones capable of giving and receiving." 7 |
Masturbation may be acceptable to the Church under specific conditions:
Articles by theologians Roberto Beretta and Elisabetta Broli appear regularly in the Italian Bishops' magazine, Avvenire. They have written a controversial sex guide titled: "It's a Sin Not To Do It." It gives readers answers to "everything you wanted to know about sex but the Church (almost) never dared to tell you." The guide encourages married members of the church to make love more often to avoid "impotence and frigidity." An article in the Telegraph states:
"Another chapter likely to raise eyebrows unearths theological justification for post-coital masturbation for women who fail to achieve orgasm during intercourse. Beretta told The Telegraph: 'The Church is not against sex. Something needed to be done about the clichés and stereotypes. The Church is not only about forbidding the use of contraception and warning against the sins of the flesh....The Vatican has not raised any concerns about the tone and style of the book,' he said. 'Some people might find it a little direct. But at least after reading this book, they will have a balanced picture of what the Church actually thinks about sex'." 11
A woman masturbating to orgasm after unprotected sexual intercourse will likely have a greater probability of conception.
The position of the laity:
Novelist and sociologist Fr. Andrew Greeley suggests that the reforms of the The Second Vatican Council, (1962 - 1965) were modest, yet were "too much for the rigid structures of 19th-century Catholicism to absorb." Using a biblical analogy, he wrote that new wine burst the old wineskins. He believes that the changes triggered a paradigm shift in attitude by many Catholics laity -- what Fr. Greeley called the "Catholic revolution." 7,8,9 He perceives that the Church's leadership is now in conflict with the lower levels of the clergy and the laity.
A second major event in the Church during the 1960s added fuel to the fire. This was the issuance of Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae." It reinforced the Church's ban on artificial methods of birth control. Many of the laity rejected this ban and subsequently started to question the Church's teachings on many other matters relating to human sexuality.
From surveys of family size, it is obvious that Roman Catholic couples are using artificial methods of birth control at approximately the same rate as non-Catholics. Rejection of the church's ban on masturbation also appears to be common, although we have not seen firm data to verify this.
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- John F. Harvey, "Morality of masturbatory activity," Courage, at: http://couragerc.net/
- Lampert Dolphin, "Masturbation and the Bible," at: http://www.ldolphin.org/
- Pope Paul VI, "Persona Humana - Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics," issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 1975-DEC-29. See: http://www.vatican.va/
- "Catechism of the Catholic Church: Part Three; Life in Christ," The Vatican, at: http://www.vatican.va/
- "Mortal Sin," Wikipedia, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
- Grace MacKinnon, "Is this a mortal sin?," Catholic Exchange, 2005-MAR-09, at: http://www.catholicexchange.com/
- Catholic Answers at http://www.catholic.com/chastity/q11.asp Derived from Jason Evert's book "If You Really Loved Me: 100 Questions on Dating, Relationships and Sexual Purity," Catholic Answers, (2003). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
- Andrew Greeley, "The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins, and the Second Vatican Council," University of California Press, (2004). Read reviews or order this book
- "Sour wine in new wineskins," Book review, This Rock, 2004-DEC, at: http://www.catholic.com/
- Publishers Weekly book review of "The Catholic Revolution," at: Amazon.com
- Julian Coman, "Vatican sex guide urges Catholics to do 'it' more often," Telegraph.co.uk, 2004-OCT-31, at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
- Father Philip, "Is masturbation a sin?", Catholic Q and A, 2002-NOV-01, at: http://www.catholicqanda.org/
- Father John Ruffo, "What is church's stance on masturbation? Mortal sin in what circumstances?," Catholic Q and A, 2002-MAR-11, at: http://www.catholicqanda.org/
- "Virginity," Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), at: http://www.newadvent.org/
- "Masturbation = Lost Virginity?," Catholic Answers Forums, at: http://forums.catholic.com/
- Alan Soble, "Philosophy of Sexuality," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (2006) at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/
- Jameson and Jennifer Taylor, "Babies Deserve Better. What You Need to Know If You're Struggling with Infertility," This Rock, 2006-APR, at: http://www.catholic.com/
- E. Michael Jones, "The Solitary Vice Goes Public", Editorial, Fidelity, Notre Dame, IN, 1985/5.
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on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2006-AUG-06
Author: B.A. Robinson
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