# Is masturbation considered a sin among celibate priests? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 1, 2000, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206 "2000-05-01T01:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/1 "2000-05-01T01:16:15Z")
Ok where to put this…where to put this…Mods do what you will with it. Is masturbation considered a sin among celibate priests? I know the Bible talks about “not spilling your seed upon the ground”.” Surely there is just a tiny bit of masturbation going on with these priests. Would that be a sin?? Of course who’s to know if there is a bit of bishop pounding going on? I mean other than God. I ‘m not trying to make light of anyone’s religion here either, as I have stated before I am a church going Episcopalian…but our priests can get married! It’s the only kind of priest I would be able to be too, cause I just can’t ignore that johnson for too long! Curious as always I remain, ---
**Author:** ![Argeable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Argeable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argeable)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/2 "2000-05-01T01:20:39Z")
Hmmm, well I’d have to say it is a sin. As I see it, the purpose of celibacy is to refrain from such earthly pleasures as sex, and so by masturbating (and bringing one’s self to orgasm) one would defeat that purpose. So, what do you think? ---
**Author:** ![CuBorab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CuBorab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuBorab)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/3 "2000-05-01T01:23:05Z")
The last I checked, it’s not allowed among Catholic priests. I believe it falls under “self-pollution”, i.e., lust, and even wet dreams are supposed to be met with a prayer for purity. Something like that, anyway. I’m not Catholic, and it’s been a while. ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/4 "2000-05-01T01:28:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Hmmm, well I’d have to say it is a sin. As I see it, the purpose of celibacy is to refrain from such earthly pleasures as sex, and so by masturbating (and bringing one’s self to orgasm) one would defeat that purpose. > So, what do you think? > \*\* Well I guess I lack the earthly skills to understand how any one of us could go a healthy 40 or 50 years without an orgasm. You suppose there are any medical problems connected with that? My doc told me to help prevent prostate trouble during sexual dry spells… to just wack on that thing. I curiously find it easier to think that nuns could go without an orgasm that long… but that a priest would have a really hard time.( no pun intended) Go figure… ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/5 "2000-05-01T01:47:13Z")
aha wrote: > [@](#): > > I know the Bible talks about “not spilling your seed upon the ground”. Yes, **but** not in the context of masturbation. The passage you’re thinking of is Genesis 38:9. Er was the first-born son, and Onan the second born. Er died before his wife had borne any children. As was the custom at the time, Onan took Er’s widow as his own wife; only the first-born son could “officially” carry on the family line, and in the event of his death it was the duty of the next-in-line son to carry on in the first-born’s name. However, Onan didn’t like the idea of his offspring being considered Er’s rather than Onan’s, so every time he, ahem, “knew” his new wife, he intentionally spilled his semen on the ground instead of in the usual place. God got cheesed off at him for being so selfish, and killed him. So the behavior being punished in this passage was not masturbation, it was _coitus interruptus_. ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/6 "2000-05-01T01:53:26Z")
Rather than post this as a Great Debate and sharing of personal history you could have just called the local Catholic Church. Several posters in GQ have told newbies not to ask questions they could have researched for themselves. Geesh. ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/7 "2000-05-01T02:19:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Rather than post this as a Great Debate and sharing of personal history you could have just called the local Catholic Church. Several posters in GQ have told newbies not to ask questions they could have researched for themselves. Geesh. > \*\* Excuse me but doesn’t part of the allure of this board lie with the fact that you can ask questions like I have asked in the OP in relative anonymity? Isn’t this a place designed so that you can just let those questions hang out there? If I had wanted to use the phone to call a catholic church I would have probably had to identify myself or given a false identify… the fact is, I didn’t want to use the phone, instead I chose this method of communication. This is Great Debates and the Mods should be in charge of deciding who’s taking up pixel space and who ain’t. If they think I am, then they can close this mother down. And frankly I don’t care what “several posters have told newbies” I try to ask questions that I think in my opinion others might only \* think \* about asking. I am of the opinion that it aids in fighting ignorance, aren’t you? After all, that’s why were are here idnit? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/8 "2000-05-01T03:56:17Z")
Quote: “I try to ask questions that I think in my opinion others might only think about asking. I am of the opinion that it aids in fighting ignorance, aren’t you? After all, that’s why were are here idnit?” See? I would never have guessed that you were just doing this out of the goodness of your heart and concern for others. What a great guy! ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/9 "2000-05-01T12:20:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > See? I would never have guessed that you were just doing this out of the goodness of your heart and concern for others. What a great guy! > > \*\* Gee and I would have never thought that you were the thread police…I feel safer already! ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/10 "2000-05-01T12:52:13Z")
I was raised Catholic and spent 12 years in Catholic schools. I was always taught that masturbation was a sin, period. But I figured that before I go into Great Debates with this I’d better have some facts. First, the story of Onan. You’re right, the Bible does not specifically address the issue of masturbation. I’ve even found some catholic web sites that kind of grudgingly admit this. But all we can say here is that the Bible doesn’t say. And the Church has never been shy about “filling in the blanks” so to speak. So what is the official Church line? [From New Advent Catholic Web Site](http://www.newadvent.org) [Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics](http://www.newadvent.org/docs/df75se.htm) > [@](#): > > Whatever the force of certain arguments of a biological and philosophical nature, which have sometimes been used by theologians, in fact both the Magisterium of the Church–in the course of a constant tradition-- and the moral sense of the faithful have declared without hesitation that masturbation is an intrinsically and seriously disordered act.[19] The main reason is that, whatever the motive for acting this way, the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside normal conjugal relations essentially contradicts the finality of the faculty. For it lacks the sexual relationship called for by the moral order, namely the relationship which realizes “the full sense of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love.”[20] All deliberate exercise of sexuality must be reserved to this regular relationship. Even if it cannot be proved that Scripture condemns this sin by name, the tradition of the Church has rightly understood it to be condemned in the New Testament when the latter speaks of “impurity,” “unchasteness” and other vices contrary to chastity and continence. And from [The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality](http://www.newadvent.org/docs/cf9601.htm) > [@](#): > > Masturbation particularly constitutes a very serious disorder that is illicit in itself and cannot be morally justified, although “the immaturity of adolescence (which can sometimes persist after that age), psychological imbalance or habit can influence behaviour, diminishing the deliberate character of the act and bringing about a situation whereby subjectively there may not always be serious fault”.129 Therefore, adolescents should be helped to overcome manifestations of this disorder, which often express the inner conflicts of their age and, in many cases, a selfish vision of sexuality. One caveat: This is just the Catholic Church. As for other churches YMMV. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there you go. Personally, if masturbation is a sin, I’ll be headed to hell via the express route. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/11 "2000-05-01T12:55:10Z")
Frankly, if I had the choice between hell, and a heaven where there’s no gay people and nobody’s ever jerked off, I know which one I’d choose. ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/12 "2000-05-01T13:11:42Z")
Trion: > [@](#): > > Personally, if masturbation is a sin, I’ll be headed to hell via the express route. You can sit next to me on the trip down Trion… ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/13 "2000-05-01T15:22:09Z")
Sounds OK to me aha. I’d shake your hand on it but… you know. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/14 "2000-05-01T15:42:46Z")
well, if there are some priests who do not masturbate because it is a sin… then the body will, you know, force it out. a wet dream i think it’s called… so are they automatic sinners in that case? ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/15 "2000-05-01T17:10:59Z")
Ahh, the old Nocturnal Emission question. Believe it or not this is covered in the Bible. From Leviticus 15:16 - “And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.” Now obviously this can be interpreted to include masturbation, but the Church’s interpretation is that this passage is only talking about nocturnal emissions. What’s their take on it? Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any “official” statement. The general consensus seems to be that this make you unclean, but it’s not a sin. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/16 "2000-05-01T17:37:09Z")
matt\_mcl: > [@](#): > > Frankly, if I had the choice between hell, and a heaven where there’s no gay people and nobody’s ever jerked off, I know which one I’d choose. While I agree in principle with your sentiment, remember that not all sinners go to hell. If I remember my catholic doctrine correctly, you go to hell if you die after having committed a mortal sin that has not been forgiven in confession nor sincerely repented for. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/17 "2000-05-01T22:54:58Z")
Somewhere I read that masturbation wasn’t considered a sin by the Catholic Church until the counter-reformation of the 16th Century. Any truth to this rumor? ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/18 "2000-05-02T02:43:11Z")
tracer wrote: > [@](#): > > Somewhere I read that masturbation wasn’t considered a sin by the Catholic Church until the counter-reformation of the 16th Century. Any truth to this rumor? Good question. Unfortunately all my masturbating has rendered me blind and I can no longer read through my reams of data on the counter-reformation of the 16th century. Maybe some other kind Doper can help? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cactus\_Jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Cactus\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cactus_Jack)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/19 "2000-05-02T19:15:59Z")
As a few people have already pointed out, it is considered a sin by the Catholic Church for ANYONE to masturbate, including priests. Whether God thinks the same way, I don’t know. I went to a Catholic high school, had a Jesuit instructor. Somebody (I’ll admit it, it was me) asked him once this question. You know what he said? “Let me ask YOU something, Cactus. How fucking stupid do you think God is?” Made quite an impression at the time. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206/20 "2000-05-03T01:22:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > As a few people have already pointed out, it is considered a sin by the Catholic Church for ANYONE to masturbate, including priests. Whether God thinks the same way, I don’t know. > \*\* Under a general doctrine of no sex for selfish pleasure, and none whatsoever outside the proper marital relationship. However, in regards to a point brought up by other posters, a nocturnal emission _does_not\* constitute a sin, sin being something you conscientiously think about, or that you do, or neglect to do. “Wet Dreams” have been recognized as involuntary events for centuries. (OK, in the _really_ old times they were attributed to succubi) The Old Testament passage about it is usually lumped together with the whole set of rules of ritual hygiene about the uncleanliness of bodily fluids, blood, corpses, pigs, etc., not about moral fault > [@](#): > > \*\* > I went to a Catholic high school, had a Jesuit instructor. Somebody (I’ll admit it, it was me) asked him once this question. You know what he said? > “Let me ask YOU something, Cactus. How fucking stupid do you think God is?” > Made quite an impression at the time. > > \*\* Ah, yes, the Jesuits. Aren’t they great? Every major Catholic country has run them out of town at some time in history, I wonder why… The official statements have to denounce it sternly, since masturbation _is_ the exemplary act of “sex for selfish pleasure”, which the doctrine says is an absolute no-no (and from a strict POV, it’s the “selfish” bit that contains most the sin), and also because, heck, if you tell the kids it’s OK you may never get them to leave the room. Still, in diagnosing behavior disorders I’ll take my DSM-IV over my Catechism. JRD [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-masturbation-considered-a-sin-among-celibate-priests/18206.md?page=2)