Avery here are the Catechism of the Catholic Churchâs exact words regarding masturbation:
âThe Church understands the purposes of sexuality to be the begetting children and the mutual pleasure for building the couple's unity. Therefore, any deliberate activation of the sexual function outside the proper state of marriage and the purposes noted is seriously inordinate; if done voluntarily and knowingly, it is sinful. Within marriage such self- or mutual-stimulation is moral only when in some way it prepares for or completes a natural act of sexual intercourse.
Within the Church's teaching on human sexuality, masturbation is considered to be objectively disordered or intrinsically evil (in se malum or intrinsece malum); that is, no circumstances or intentions can render the action of masturbation "morally good." The degree or seriousness of the moral culpability of a particular act of masturbation, however, can be judged only in light of the degree of the moral agent's knowledge, freedom, and intentions. Full moral guilt requires a fully deliberate choice of what the person sufficiently realizes to be seriously evil, which can then be evaluated as gravely, or mortally, sinful. If the act is performed with only partial realization or only partial choice of the will, the person is presumed to be guilty only of venial sin.â
