# Do Catholics still have to report masturbation in Confession? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038 "2012-03-07T15:50:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/21 "2014-03-16T11:03:54Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Dammit…I didn’t even notice! > > :smack: > > 😃 Neither did I! If it’s a long-dead zombie, usually I’ll notice when I see the name of a once-familiar poster who’s been banned, deceased, or just hasn’t posted in years. But everyone who posted to this thread two years ago is still an active poster here, so there was no “hey, I haven’t seen OldSoAndSo in awhile!” moment. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/22 "2014-03-16T12:48:03Z")
From the catechism: _“masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.”_ Apparently the official Catholic party line is that the world is populated almost entirely by gravely disordered people. I guess they’d say only God’s grace and the leavening influence of the Church have kept us from killing each other off long ago. And: _“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.”_ As I read it, a couple of fifteen year olds making out and consciously getting aroused by it (and isn’t that the point?) are making “deliberate use of the sexual faculty” outside of marriage and are violating the moral order. What an incredibly twisted world view. You know, I don’t expect the Catholic Church to give any ground on certain things they regard as fundamentally true - for instance, in the year 2101, they’ll still take the position that genital sex should take place only in marriage. OK, whatever. But at some point I hope they will come to recognize that sexual desire is a fundamentally Good Thing, that nothing is inherently morally wrong with expressly non-procreative expressions of that desire, that good Christians who aren’t married are going to find ways of expressing that desire, and that those ways aren’t all inherently wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/23 "2014-03-16T14:17:12Z")
Even in marriage “expressly non-procreative expressions of that desire” are forbidden, that’s why for example if man is impotent from diabetes oral sex with his wife is a mortal sin. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/24 "2014-03-16T16:25:26Z")
I was raised Catholic in the '80s and '90s and don’t recall any mention one way or the other about masturbation, certainly no particular injunction to bring it up in the confessional. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/25 "2014-03-16T18:27:17Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I know they don’t call it Confession any more. When I was a good Catholic girl in the 1950’s & '60’s I wasn’t so good that I refrained from pleasuring myself even though I knew it was a mortal sin and that if I was hit by a bus after I did it but before I went to Confession, I would go straight to hell. It just felt too good. Go on. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/26 "2014-03-16T19:49:24Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I thought they were into little boys. Girls are allowed to be altar servers now, so it’s equal opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/27 "2014-03-16T19:56:01Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Since this is a zombie thread, I guess an answer wasn’t needed fast. 😉 Well, Easter is coming… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/28 "2014-03-16T20:01:17Z")
So it’s probably not something you could give up for Lent? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/29 "2014-03-16T23:43:54Z")
There are two basic rules for confession. 1. you have to genuinely believe it is a sin. 2. you have to be sorry. The Catechism describes a number of things that most people no longer think of as sins, masturbation being one. It’s a flawed institution, what can I say. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/30 "2014-03-17T11:45:23Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Even in marriage “expressly non-procreative expressions of that desire” are forbidden, that’s why for example if man is impotent from diabetes oral sex with his wife is a mortal sin. Hence the order I had them in. If the Catholic Church were to accept that there was nothing inherently morally wrong with expressly non-procreative expressions of sexual desire, it would be an immediate consequence that at least some such expressions within marriage would be OK. (I have no idea whether Catholic objections to oral sex are strictly a matter of its nonprocreative nature, or whether they would still forbid it as a kind of unnatural intercourse.) But whether they’d also be OK with premarital expressions of sexual desire would still be an open question. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/31 "2014-03-17T11:48:43Z")
I think if you went into the booth to confess masturbation the priest would tell you to beat it. ---
**Author:** ![cardinal\_fang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal_fang/32/15316_2.png) [@cardinal\_fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cardinal_fang)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/32 "2014-03-18T02:59:00Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I was a kid in the '60s and '70s and even attended Catholic grade school for a few years and I was never instructed on this being a sin. So I never knew. In fact I don’t remember it ever being brought up, in any kind of official church capacity way, until just \*last year \*at lent when **we had a featured speaker come in a priest** , to lead a parish Lent retreat. Otherwise I’d just “heard” it was forbidden. It’s one of those things I take with a grain of salt. It might just be me, but this kind of thing sends mixed messages, IMO. Especially during Lent. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/33 "2014-03-18T03:10:20Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > There are two basic rules for confession. > > 1. you have to genuinely believe it is a sin. ISTM that would be an **Ulfreida** rule, not a Catholic Church rule, though. Their take on it is the believer does not get to “genuinely believe” X conduct is a sin, _the Church_ will inform him/her if it’s a sin, and if armed with that knowledge s/he still goes ahead and does it, s/he’s got to confess it. ( requirements for mortal sin: grave matter + knowledge of the sinfulness + deliberate act; requirements for confession: self examination, true contrition, purpose to amend, actual confession, willingness to do penance) While at it, I suppose that doing a generic lumping together of conduct is allowed, otherwise if you had to itemize by each individual event most teenagers would never leave the confessional… ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/34 "2014-03-18T14:45:09Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Even in marriage “expressly non-procreative expressions of that desire” are forbidden, that’s why for example if man is impotent from diabetes oral sex with his wife is a mortal sin. In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=702131), you were quoting a document from the 1930s in an effort to show the Catholic Church’s beliefs in a negative light – and in that thread, I explained why that document was no longer good authority on the particular point. Are you doing the same thing here? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/35 "2014-03-18T14:51:54Z")
Had no idea the church considers masturbation as a sin, but as a Catholic, I’m pretty sure my views on the wisdom of obtaining sexual advice from voluntary celibates is likely not in line with normal church teachings. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/36 "2014-03-18T14:56:15Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Well, Easter is coming… Nah, she’s not coming, she’s just breathing hard. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/37 "2014-03-18T15:11:09Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Yeah, I used to go to bed in a very short skirt and halter top when I was 10 (in 1958), put on a porn video, and while away the day instead of doing my homework by \*touching myself \*with my right hand while taking slugs from a bottle of Jack Daniel’s held in my left hand. I was a great multi-tasker. > > Okay, I lied. We didn’t have video back then. I tape recorded passages from a dirty book and replayed them while indulging. > > Okay, there were no cassette tape recorders then that a kid would have access to. > > I guess I did what all kids did whose dads didn’t subscribe to _Playboy_; I scoured _National Geographic_ for pictures of naked women. No, I’m not lesbian, but naked breasts were the best one could do. It was a simple time. This post is art. Make it a sticky. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/38 "2014-03-18T21:08:33Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Had no idea the church considers masturbation as a sin, but as a Catholic, I’m pretty sure my views on the wisdom of obtaining sexual advice from voluntary celibates is likely not in line with normal church teachings. How did you become Catholic and not learn what is considered a sin? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/39 "2014-03-18T21:12:45Z")
I was born Catholic, that’s how! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038/40 "2014-03-18T21:14:33Z")
**JohnT** Were you seriously unaware of what your church teaches about sexual ethics? The Catechism, nowadays, is easily available online. For the OP: yes, I confess it. I’m Episcopalian, though, not Catholic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-catholics-still-have-to-report-masturbation-in-confession/615038.md?page=3)