Regarding Catholicism, what the catechism says regarding masturbation:
Quote:
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.
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Now, first of all, if one were to say this is totally correct, I think it's fair to say that MOST people acquired a habit of masturbation when they were young and not fully mature. Thus, most people, IMO, would fall under the affective immaturity and force of acquired habit umbrella.
Aside for that, like I said, I don't think this is generally the right way to look at masturbation. Catholicism is a particularly interesting religion I think because you can talk to two priests and get entirely opposite answers regarding the faith. While some may think that shows a lack of decisiveness, I think that the freedom to which theological issues can be considered, with respect for the primacy of conscience, allows for the Catholic Church to be quite malleable when it comes to rethinking various outlooks. For example: where I went to church as a kid, one of the priests freely expressed his belief that there is no such thing as a requirement to not eat meat on Fridays during Lent. It's a nice symbolic thing to do, but basically he asserted that it doesn't matter one bit if you do it or not in the grand scheme of things. There are other priests one could speak to who would say such an opinion is terrible and completely contrary to the church's teaching. Likewise, there are many priests today who are still opposed to the reforms of Vatican II which, once fully accepted, I think pave way to LOTS of theological conclusions that are different from the "official" stance of the Church now.
Point being, there are quite conservative Catholics and quite liberal Catholics. Most of the more liberal Catholics that I've had the pleasure of experiencing make little differentiation between "mortal" and "venial" sins. Indeed, I've gone to Catholic schools for 13 years and went through Catholic confirmation classes through my church for 2 of the 4 years I was attending a public high school, and I have never once been taught the difference between a mortal or venial sin. Yet, on the other hand, there are still some Catholics who will not participate in the handshake of peace during mass because they object to it and other various parts of Vatican II which make the Catholic faith much more open and liberal.
Point being, change in the Catholic Church does not happen from the top down; it happens from the bottom up. I truly believe that women will become priests in the next 100 years at most within the Catholic Church, because the forces are in place and the sentiment is moving up the chain. Likewise, I think the contemporary Catholic theological movement is progressing a new unerstanding of sexuality and its place in our lives. The change, however, is happening from the bottom up, so it's not going to be seen in any "official" documents. The last time the church REALLY talked about masturbation was 1975 (that is what the section in the catechism is based on), and even in just the past 30 years we have come extremely far in getting a better understanding of ourselves. Take that into account as well as the fact the current pope is considered to be a "conservative" Catholic (something which many of the cardinals in the church do not like, because he does not tend to support the collegiality that was proposed in Vatican II), and I think that the church is ripe for drastic changes in theological thinking in the next 100 years and even just in the next papacy.
As a side note, one can already see this beginning in a new sex guide that has been sanctioned by the Vatican which supports post-coital masturbation for people who have failed to get off
