What Does the Church Teach About Masturbation?

Is masturbation a sin? Yes. The Catholic Church teaches, and has always taught, that masturbation — what the moral tradition calls self-abuse — is a grave sin against the Sixth Commandment and against the virtue of chastity. It is mortal when committed with knowledge and full consent of the will, because it is a deliberate misuse of the generative faculty against the order God Himself has fixed in it. We say this plainly, without softening, because a soul is owed the truth. And we say it alongside the other half of that truth: no one who struggles is beyond the reach of grace, and the Church holds out real, ancient remedies to anyone who wishes to be free.

If you have come here weighed down, begin not with despair but with a prayer of sorrow and trust:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

What does the Bible say about masturbation?

Scripture does not catalogue every act by a modern clinical label, but it condemns the whole class of impurity to which this sin belongs, and it does so without any softening at all. Two passages stand at the centre.

The first is the sin of Onan in the Book of Genesis. Commanded to raise up seed to his dead brother, Onan deliberately frustrated the generative act:

And Onan knowing that the children should not be his, when he went in to his brother's wife, he spilled his seed upon the ground, lest children should be born in his brother's name. And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing. (Genesis xxxviii. 9-10, Douay-Rheims)

The Lord struck Onan dead because he wilfully separated the seed from the end God gave it. The whole Catholic moral tradition reads this passage as a witness against every deliberate spilling of seed outside its God-given purpose. The deed is named "detestable," and God's own judgment falls upon it at once.

The second is St Paul's plain teaching to the Corinthians, where he lists the impurities that shut a soul out of heaven:

Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians vi. 9-10, Douay-Rheims)

And he gives the body its true dignity, which is exactly what this sin profanes:

Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body. (1 Corinthians vi. 19-20, Douay-Rheims)

This is the heart of the matter. The body is not a private possession to use as one pleases; it is bought by the Blood of Christ and made a temple. To turn the generative power back upon oneself for pleasure alone is to profane that temple.

What does the Catholic Church teach about masturbation?

The teaching is settled and unanimous. St Thomas Aquinas places this sin among the sins against nature — that is, among the acts of lust that violate the very order of the generative faculty, not merely the rights of another person. He treats it under the name mollities and judges it a grave sin precisely because it directs the generative act away from its God-given end (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 154).

The Roman Catechism, drawn up by the Council of Trent, reads the Sixth Commandment as forbidding not only adultery but "every kind of immodesty and impurity" and "the inward licentiousness of the heart," for the law is spiritual and reaches the will itself (Catechism of the Council of Trent, on the Sixth Commandment). Masturbation falls squarely within that prohibition.

The reason is not Puritan suspicion of the body — the Church honours the body and the goods of marriage. The reason is that God built into the generative act both a unitive and a procreative meaning, and He fixed them there. Masturbation deliberately tears the act loose from both, turning a power ordered toward self-gift and new life into an act closed in upon the self. That is why the tradition has never wavered.

Is it always a mortal sin?

The act, in its kind, is grave matter — it is objectively a serious sin. For any actual sin to be mortal, three things must be present together: grave matter, full knowledge that the act is gravely wrong, and the deliberate consent of the will. Where knowledge or consent is genuinely diminished — by long-ingrained habit, by sudden violent temptation, by immaturity or anxiety — the guilt can be lessened. The Church recognises this honestly. But the way to know how grave a given fall was, and to be set free of it, is not private guesswork; it is the confessional, where the matter can be laid before a priest and absolved. See our guide to mortal and venial sin for the distinction in full.

How does a soul find freedom?

The Church does not name a sin grave in order to crush a soul, but to call it home. Against this sin she has handed down centuries of proven means, the same means the saints used.

• Frequent confession. This is the appointed remedy. Christ gave His priests the power to forgive: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John xx. 23). A sincere confession, with true sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment, washes the soul clean. If it has been long, our walk-through on how to go to confession will steady you.
• The Holy Eucharist. Frequent Communion, worthily received, is the bread of the strong and cools concupiscence over time.
• Daily mental prayer and the Rosary. A soul that prays is a soul that fights; a soul that abandons prayer falls.
• Guarding the eyes and the imagination. This sin almost always feeds on impure images. Cutting off pornography at the root is half the battle won — see what God says about pornography.
• The classic discipline of the interior life. The old masters of spiritual combat teach watchfulness, custody of the senses, and instant prayer at the first stirring of temptation.

Falls along the way are not the end of the road. The saints were not men who never fell, but men who rose every time, ran to God's mercy, and began again. Lust is one of the seven deadly sins, and like all of them it is conquered not by willpower alone but by grace, sought daily on the knees.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is masturbation a sin in the Catholic Church?

Yes. The Catholic Church teaches that masturbation is a grave sin against the Sixth Commandment and the virtue of chastity. It is objectively serious matter, and it becomes a mortal sin when committed with full knowledge that it is gravely wrong and with the deliberate consent of the will.

Where does the Bible condemn masturbation?

Scripture does not use the modern word, but it condemns the whole class of impurity to which the sin belongs. The sin of Onan, who "spilled his seed upon the ground" and was struck dead by God, is called "detestable" (Genesis xxxviii. 9-10). St Paul bars "fornicators" and "the effeminate" from the kingdom of God and teaches that the body is a temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians vi. 9-10, 19-20, Douay-Rheims).

Why is masturbation considered seriously wrong?

Because God fixed in the generative act both a unitive and a procreative meaning. Masturbation deliberately separates the act from both, turning a power ordered toward self-gift and new life into an act closed in upon the self. St Thomas Aquinas therefore numbers it among the sins against nature (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 154).

Can masturbation be forgiven?

Always. There is no sin of impurity that the mercy of God cannot wipe away. The ordinary means is sacramental confession with true contrition and a firm purpose of amendment. Christ Himself gave His priests this power: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John xx. 23).

How can someone stop the habit of masturbation?

By using the means the saints used: frequent confession, worthy Communion, daily prayer and the Rosary, strict custody of the eyes and imagination, the removal of impure images, and immediate prayer at the first temptation. Falls are not failures if the soul rises at once and returns to grace.

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Sources. Douay-Rheims Bible (Genesis xxxviii. 9-10; 1 Corinthians vi. 9-10, 19-20; John xx. 23); St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 154; Catechism of the Council of Trent (the Roman Catechism), on the Sixth Commandment.