Hellfire Awaits Unrepentant Masturbators
So wrote Pope John Paul 2
By Raymond Fontaine, Ph.D. - February 2006
E-mail no. 26: A Frightened Offender Seeks Help
Recently someone, let's call him Harry, sent me the following e-mail regarding the punishment of masturbation.
Greetings, sir. I could use your help. Sometime ago, when I confessed my sins, the priest warned me that the Church considers masturbation a grievous sin. This mortal sin, he said, if not repented and not forgiven, is punished after death in eternal hellfire.
That seems to me like a grotesque penalty for a little self-indulgence. What's the loss of a little semen when the supply is never wanting. Masturbation harms no one but the Church insists that it deserves the same punishment as murder: hellfire. That seems to me like justice gone nuts.
If the Church really teaches that, something is wrong with the Church or with God as preached by the Church. Common sense knows better.
I'm seeking your advice after reading your articles on the Web and then your book: My Life with God in and out of the Church. You faced a similar dilemma and resolved it definitively. I'm hoping for the same outcome. Please let me know what you think. Best wishes. Harry.
E-mail no. 27: My Response to Harry
Thank you for putting your trust in me. First let's review what the Church teaches about masturbation. It is clearly stated in the book entitled: Catechism of the Catholic Church. In 1992 Pope John Paul 2 signed the book and Cardinal Ratzinger (the present Pope) authorized its printing. In paragraph 2352, Pope John Paul 2 wrote: "Masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." In paragraph 1857 the Pope defined "mortal sin as a sin whose object is grave matter." Thus Pope John Paul 2 declared masturbation a mortal sin. Finally, in paragraph 1861, the Pope said, "Mortal sin results in the privation of the state of grace. If this sin is not redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness, it causes the eternal death of hell."
As you know, the truth of this doctrine cannot be proven by the Pope. It is accepted entirely on his say-so. Note that he himself believes it on the authority of a long line of Popes, all parroting their predecessors.
As for me, I spent fifty years believing whatever the Church taught. Then one day I realized the full import of the Church's condemnation of Galileo for teaching that the earth rotates around the sun. One century later, science proved definitively that Galileo had been right and the Church wrong - dead wrong.
I then examined more doctrines and regulations that the Church has based on the Bible. I searched the Bible for the basis of the Church's teaching on birth control and divorce and celibacy and many more. I found nothing. At the end of my research I found no reason to believe in the Church. So I left the Church and the priesthood. That's how I resolved my problem for the rest of my life.
Just as I found one teaching of the Church that was clearly wrong: namely, the rotation of the sun around the earth, so have you found an egregious error of the Church: namely, that masturbation is a mortal sin deserving of eternal hellfire. I don't believe it nor do a billion other humans and apparently neither do you.
This serious error in the teachings of the Church casts a dark cloud over all the dogmas and regulations of the Church. One such blunder smashes the credibility of the Church into smithereens.
Hold on to your conviction that the Church is wrong about masturbation deserving eternal hellfire. That may be enough for you to stop believing in the Church. If not, continue questioning its credibility in other matters, such as its condemnation of all devices of birth control. I believe that you will eventually come to the same conclusion that I did and logically abandon the Church.
In doing so, you will not be turning away from the Supreme Intelligence that has designed the wonderful structures in Nature. Be satisfied with what Nature reveals to you - the existence of its Designer. Then you can relate to the Creator as your mind and heart dictate. Make Nature's God your God. With my best wishes. Ray.
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