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Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for writing.
You said:
- Does the Catholic Church regard masturbation a sin?
- If so, then why did God create it?
Yes, masturbation is the matter of serious sin, with fantasy or without. It directly violates human nature and contradicts the purpose of our sexual self. Your glorifying it seems like it may be an attempt at rationalization.
God did not create masturbation, nor any sin. We did. One should never claim God created what is objectively evil. We can see in Genesis 38:9-10 what God thinks of masturbation.
The desire for sexual union is natural, just like the desire for food. If the human race forgot about either we would die but the pleasure that comes from both is not an end itself but the benefit of acting naturally by eating or engaging in marital union, respectively. Masturbation in this respect is akin to bulimia: seeking pleasure divorced from its purpose. It is intrinsically disordered and objectively selfish.
Having said all that, one cannot avoid the fact that this is a common sin stemming from a common weakness — exacerbated by the modern world's preoccupation with sex, coupled with the ascending average marriage age which is now way past puberty. However, one cannot rationalize sin by recognizing the challenges that original sin and modern life have placed on us. Instead, we are called to love God above all things, including ourselves.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2351 states:
| Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes. |
This refers to the truth that sexual acts are made only for union with another (one's spouse) with an openness to its procreative possibility. All else violates our human nature as willed and designed by God.
In addition, the Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2352 states:
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.
(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana [9/IX])
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.
(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana [9/IX])
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 to summarize, masturbation is the matter of grave sin. In order to judge the guilt of the person who engages in this, 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.
Only God can truly judge this with perfect accuracy. Nevertheless, it is very important to take measures that would lead to the overcoming of such a serious vice. For a Catholic, that would mean:
- frequent visits to the wonderful sacrament of Confession
- frequent reception of Our Lord in Holy Communion
- prayer, and
- practical steps that would lead one to overcome the habit.
Grace, and our cooperation with it, is the only formula to overcome this sin.
Peace,
Paul
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