Does the church allow/condone masturbation. It could be used as a form of relief from sexual pressures - both for the clergy & evryone else.

-- John Williams (rjswilson@netzero.net), January 02, 2004

Answers

Adultery and fornication could also be used as forms of relief from sexual pressures - if it were not for the fact that they are contrary to the law of God. The Church's teaching on masturbation is summed up in the following excepts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church ...

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.

2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), January 02, 2004.

Paul, You forgot the apples!

In Christ, Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), January 02, 2004.