Correction

I decided to write this in response to the post by Mr. Porretto of Eternity Road since he has eliminated the comments section of that post. He has endorsed a friend’s blog whom he has described as a “devout” Catholic, who loves sex, was a former prostitute, etc...

Not knowing this friend’s life story, I have nothing to say about her former profession. However, I took exception to Mr. Porretto calling her a “devout” Catholic after reading some of the posts at her blog, which delineates the sexual pleasure she derives from anal penetration, masturbating with sex toys, etc…

I wrote a comment that Mr. Porretto does not know what a “devout” Catholic is, since no Catholic can claim to be devout while cheerfully committing a sin against chastity.

His heated response in defense of his girlfriend (and he is a married man - apparently an unhappily and sexually frustrated one at that - as one of her posts declares as such) was that the Church was not “infallible” and that he uses his conscience to guide him in such matters. The Church is infallible in FAITH AND MORALS. And chastity falls under the category of MORALS. There is no argument over whether masturbation is a sin or not, Mr. Porretto; READ THE CATECHISM (Vatican Edition) and you will find in Part 3, Paragraph 2352, that:

“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 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. 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.”

Mr. Porretto, you are WRONG. You cannot call yourself or your friend a DEVOUT Catholic as you pick and choose which laws of the Magisterium to obey. As I said in your now defunct comments section of that post, I don’t care what you do or with whom, however I take exception to your using the term DEVOUT CATHOLIC to describe someone whose actions clearly violate the laws of the Church. Your lame excuse regarding your conscience is also erroneous: the Church teaches that the conscience as a guide must be INFORMED by the Magisterium. This is another reason why people who are not Catholic are misinformed and confused by the teachings of the Church: its members themselves don’t know what the teachings are.

I would have preferred to simply respond to his comments in that post, however his removal of it compels me to write this here in fraternal correction.

Mr. Porretto, I dare you to consult an ORTHODOX CATHOLIC PRIEST for further guidance on this matter. Hopefully you will have the fortitude to take his instruction.

ADDENDUM

I received a trite comment about being "judgmental". Problem is, if humans do not exercise the faculty of Judgment, which is a function of the MIND, then we may as well go on all fours. I'm not telling the person they are going to hell. I'm telling them that they have no bloody business calling themselves or others "DEVOUT" when they practice something which clearly violates MORAL LAW as taught by the Magisterium of the Church! It's that bloody simple. And if anyone else wants to leave the same kind of insipid remarks I'm simply going to delete it.