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Masturbation is a "grave" sin and could be a "mortal" sin.
Mortal sins break our relationship with God. That said, for any sin to be a mortal sin, it must meet three criteria:
It must be grave matter
You must know it's a sin, and
You must give full consent of the will and have sufficient time to think about what you're doing.
In some cases, masturbation is a habit, so that can mitigate culpability (guilt) because addiction can impair free will. (CCC 2352, second paragraph) That doesn't mean we aren't required to do our best to resist temptation.
Offenses against chastity.
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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." (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana 9)
"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)
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.
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), pp. 564–65
In any event, it’s not for us to judge if we gave full consent of the will. So, any time we commit a sin that is grave matter, we must confess it. If it's a habit, tell the priest as well.
We should not receive Holy Communion if we are aware of having committed sin that is grave matter.
John
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