Read the Catechism in a Year

Day 285 - Is Masturbation an Offense Against Love?

The Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery.

Is masturbation an offense against love?
Masturbation is an offense against love, because it makes the excitement of sexual pleasure an end in itself and uncouples it from the holistic unfolding of love between a man and a woman. That is why "sex with yourself" is a contradiction in terms.
The Church does not demonize masturbation, but she warns against trivializing it. In fact many young people and adults are in danger of becoming isolated in their consumption of lewd pictures, films, and Internet services instead of finding love in a personal relationship. Loneliness can lead to a blind alley in which masturbation becomes an addiction. Living by the motto "For sex I do not need anyone; I will have it myself, however and whenever I need it" makes nobody happy. (YOUCAT question 409)

Dig Deeper: CCC section (2352) and other references here.
A Talk that Saved Thousands of Lives: Detox by Jason Evert

This text comes from the YOUCAT - an accessible expression of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a simple Q & A format. [Learn more here]
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Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you."¹ ⇡

You shall not commit adultery.¹¹³

You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery." But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.¹¹⁴ ⇡

II. THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY ⇡

Offenses against chastity ⇡

1735
(all)

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."¹³⁸ "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."¹³⁹

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.

Jn 13:34.

113.

Ex 20:14; Deut 5:18.

114.

Mt 5:27-28.

138.

CDF, Persona humana 9.

139.

CDF, Persona humana 9.