Masturbation

Is it always a mortal sin?

Not always. The Church teaches that the act is always grave matter, but a mortal sin needs more than grave matter: “three conditions must together be met”, grave matter “committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent”. CCC 1857 Where one of the last two is missing, a sin in a grave matter is venial. CCC 1862

On the act, the Catechism leaves no doubt: the Magisterium and the moral sense of the faithful “have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action”, because the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside marriage “is essentially contrary to its purpose”. On the person, the same paragraph asks that account be taken of “the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that lessen or even extenuate moral culpability”. CCC 2352 Habit is among the things that can diminish or even nullify responsibility. CCC 1735

A 1975 declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith holds both sides. Immaturity, which “can sometimes persist” past adolescence, psychological imbalance or habit can diminish the deliberate character of the act, so that “subjectively there may not always be serious fault”. But “in general, the absence of serious responsibility must not be presumed; this would be to misunderstand people’s moral capacity.” Judgment in a particular case looks at the person’s life as a whole and at “whether the individual is using the necessary means, both natural and supernatural” to overcome the passions. Persona Humana

None of this is won at once. “Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all”, and the effort “can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence”. CCC 2342

These paragraphs are not in the Catechism’s own order. The one that answers the question directly is placed first; none has been left out.

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." CDF — 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." CDF — 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 or even extenuate moral culpability.

2342

Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life. Cf. Titus 2:1-6. The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence.

1735

Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.

1857

For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." RP 17 # 12.

1862

One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent.

Persona Humana Dec 29, 1975

From the Catechism

From the Magisterium