II. The Vocation to Chastity

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.”¹³⁷ “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.”¹³⁸
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 or even extenuate
moral culpability.

From The Catechism of the Catholic Church – rosary.team

Original Link: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P85.HTM