The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 307: Offenses Against Chastity (2025)

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

What is God's intended purpose for our sexuality? We confront several significant transgressions that hinder this design. These offenses include lust, the consumption of pornography, and engagement in prostitution. Fr. Mike offers us a poignant reminder that despite these sins, our intrinsic human dignity remains unblemished and worthy of reverence. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2351-2356. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 307. We are reading paragraphs 2351 to 2356. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can click follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today. As I said, is day 307 reading paragraphs 2351 to 2356. Yesterday we talked about the integrality of the gift of self and the various forms of chastity, right today we're looking kind of taking a turn and well not a turn but we're looking at what are the offenses against chastity so yesterday we talked about and the day before we talked about how chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being and so that there's a goodness there right there's integrity we have to have and then the integrality of the gift that we're giving making of ourselves to others now

there's ways we can sin against chastity. And so I guess we can just kind of name them quickly before we launch into them today. Generally speaking, there's lust. Then go on, well, how can lust be lived out, you know, how that sin of lust be lived out or given into? One is by masturbation, one is by fornication, one is by pornography. We have prostitution and rape today. So really serious topics. Tomorrow, we're continuing to talk about serious topics. But today we have those. And you know when it comes to the commandments we've talked about this so many times there's the invitation and the challenge and there's the reality that we can find ourselves in a place where oh man this is what i've done and we can be convicted by that in this section today there is that oh this is

what i've done but there's also this is what someone's done to me there's also that brokenness here because we recognize that there's a uniqueness to how i say sexual brokenness isn't there? It seems like there is. And here's the case that I'm going to make for that. So if you're familiar with the TV show Law and Order, right? So it's the kind of cop slash courtroom drama that they make. They have how many different versions of law and order. But one of the versions, one of the variations of this TV show, Law and Order, there is Law and Order SVU, and that stands for Special Victims Unit. And even in the introduction, they say something along the lines of this is for crimes that are particularly heinous because they deal with

what, they deal with sexuality, they deal with assaults against the human person in the area of sexuality. And so there's special victims unit. Now, in today's section, I just want to highlight that because there's a sensitivity. Again, some of these things are things that, oh man, this is a sin that I have in myself. But sometimes there's these things that this was an assault that I experienced, someone else perpetrated against me. And in this moment, I just want to recognize and pause and say, as we walk into this, into this teaching today, there is no finger wagging, there is no accusation. Remember, the evil one is the accuser. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us, but he also consoles us. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. What was my part of this? But he also consoles us.

But my invitation, you know, there's such a thing as real guilt and there's also fake guilt. Real guilt is, yep, that's what I was responsible for. And fake guilt is where I feel responsible, but it wasn't my fault. And in all of this, to recognize that whether this brokenness, you're experienced, whether this is a result of I did this to myself or someone else did this to me, your dignity is still intact. I just want you to hear this. Your dignity is still intact as we talk about these things. again lust masturbation fornication pornography prostitution rape your dignity is still your dignity you still are made in god's image and likeness you are still as god declares you are still worth

living for you are still worth dying for you are still worth conquering death for because that's your worth and that's how much god loves you as we talk about these topics and just keep that in mind let the holy spirit convict us but also let the holy spirit console us this is part of your story. Your story is not over. God can and will continue to bring you healing. That's what we're praying for right now. So let's pray right now. Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, your son, ask that all of those members of this catechism in your community, receive your healing in a unique way today. Receive the power of your Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ in a unique way today, that whether we are filled with self-inflicted wounds or whether our

our wounds have been inflicted on us by others. Remind us. Remind us of our value in your eyes. Remind us, remind my sisters and brothers of their great goodness. The dignity that you have not taken away. The dignity that you have affirmed in them right now. In this moment, Lord God, please console their hearts. where we need to repent we repent where we need you to heal us please lord god heal us and we make this prayer

in the mighty name of jesus christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen it is day 307 we are reading paragraphs 2351 to 2356 offenses against chastity lust is disorder desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes. 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.

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. To form an equitable judgment about the subject's moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the effective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduced to a minimum, moral culpability. Fornication is a carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely

contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality, which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young. Pornography consists in removing, real, or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants, actors, vendors, the public,

since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials. Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself. He violates the chastity to which his baptism pledged him,

and defiles his body the temple of the Holy Spirit. prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents. The latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal. While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure. Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deep deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically

evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents, incest, or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them. All right, there we have it, paragraphs 2351 to 2356. As I said, special victims unit, this is highly sensitive, obviously, especially at the end, right? It's worth noting how devastating. Let's start at the end, I guess. 2355, prostitution, or even 2354, pornography, that recognition of this just grave injury to the dignity of its participants. That's 2354 pornography, the actors, the vendors, the public, everyone involved in this. Everyone, it does grave injury to every person's dignity, whether they be, again, the actors, the people making this thing, even those who are consuming

it, even just to the culture. Pornography does grave injury to the dignity of everyone involved. Why? Since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and unless a profit for others, it immerses everyone who's involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. And this recognition, again, so destructive. So destructive. and so many people find themselves caught. You know, I think it was something along the lines of the vast majority of marriages that end in divorce. Pornography was a part of that.

It's like, well, it's victimless crime. Nope, not at all. Not at all. Well, those people involved are willing participants. Nope, not always. Maybe, maybe sometimes, but not always. In fact, there's a book by a man named Matt Fred. It's called The Porn Myth.

and it is very revealing and it's simply from a it's not from a religious perspective although matt is very catholic it is simply a secular perspective on the devastating reality of the world of pornography not only the devastating reality of all that goes into producing and distributing this but also what it does to individuals what it does to marriages and families what it does to a culture again this is so it's just it's very it's very fast fascinating to realize, you know, hold the Sixth Commandment, the Ninth Commandment. It's just another one of the two more of the ten. Yes, yes, because other things are very important, obviously. And yet, how much this hurts, how much this hurts our world.

Theft, of course, hurts our world. Lies, of course, hurt our world. But this has a unique way of hurting. Prostitution, here 2355, does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing that person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The person who pays sins gravely against himself. The Catechism says here, it is a social scourge. Who can it involve? It says usually involves women, but also men, children, adolescence. And it's to recognize like that,

where do you even start with this? Where does a person even start to say, okay, this is an issue? and this is a massive problem how do we tackle this how do you end this at the same time i i appreciate how the last sentence of paragraph 2355 highlights the fact that those involved in prostitution those meaning those who are being used um yes it while it's always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution whether someone's culpable right whether they're actually guilty of the offense It says can be attenuated, right, reduced or whatever, by destitution, blackmail, social pressure, that there are realities that a person who finds himself engaged in prostitution, finds himself selling their sexuality, finds himself selling their bodies that they're, yes, always sinful, but they might not be culpable of that. because again, destitution had no other choice, no other way out that at least was presented

to me, or blackmail or social pressure. Those things exist. The last one here of 2356 of rape, it's even hard. I don't know. I literally I find it so hard to say, even to say that word. Forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice. It does injury to love. And this, I want to read this because, I think that if this has been part of your life, I think it's worth hearing what the church says about this in the sense of like the church knows, okay, this is how deeply this wounds. So it says rape deeply wounds, the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. And I think I want you to hear this as the church saying,

I see you. And if you're like, you don't understand what it's done to me, here's your You're right. You're probably right. But here are the church is saying, but we know that it deeply wounds. The respect to what you have a right. The freedom to which you have a right. The physical and moral integrity, that's your life. That's your physical integrity, right? That's your moral integrity that someone else violated. You had a right for that. And it causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. And if you find yourself, again, being someone who is a victim of rape, sexual assault, and that still wounds you, I just, I know it might not help anything, but maybe it helps. Maybe it helps a little bit to realize that

the church is saying, no, we know this. We know that that has caused your grave damage. It can mark you for life. You find yourself still struggling. The church is saying, yeah, we understand. There have been enough people who have been hurt. Too many people who have been hurt. And, of course, it's always an intrinsically evil act. And it becomes even graver when it's the rape of children by parents, incest, and or those responsible for the education of the children and trusted to them. Any adult who's supposed to be in that child's life, whether that be a teacher or a coach or priest, authority figure, even graver. The church here, I think in these words, just wants to highlight the fact that, yes, if this has been part of your story, and if you are carrying wounds,

then the church is saying maybe like, we see you, we see them, we know, we understand even a little bit. I mean, we know the catechism isn't a therapy book. It's not a, it's not a book that's going to necessarily heal. It's a book that teaches and reveals. And what it teaches is that this is absolutely evil. It reveals that hopefully, and maybe it's too little, but I don't know, it reveals that officially the church knows the great wound and it's all and this is the thing it's all connected you know i started with these these last three paragraphs 2354 55 and 56 pornography prostitution and rape but doesn't start there they're connected to 2351 which is lust the disordered desire for anordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure right it's a disorder

desire that we recognize that sexual pleasure is oriented to be a gift of oneself leading to the procreative and unitive ends. So paragraph 251 talks about this and that sexual desire on its own is not a bad thing. Sexual desire on its own has been given to us by God. We're built this way. I mean, this is part of what it is to be a human being. Yet also what it is, what sexual the sexual act is is ordered towards what the gift of self ordered towards procreation right the conception and raising of children and unit to purposes which is the the bonding of the spouses so keep this in mind this is going to be very very important for us as we continue to understand like what is what is ordered sexual relationships well it's a gift of self it's not sought for

my own self not sought for this other person's own self it's a gift of self ordered towards procreation, meaning ordered towards conception. Now, conception doesn't always have to happen. We'll talk about that as we continue to move forward. But that is what the sexual act is. It must always, if it's going to be ordered, it has to be a gift of self, ordered towards procreation, and the unity of the spouses.

Any distortion of that, okay, it's no longer for the unity of the spouses. Okay, that's a big distortion. And it's no longer oriented towards procreation. that's a big distortion is no longer oriented towards being a gift of self that's a massive distortion that's why it says in the very next paragraph 2352 masturbation what is that okay it's the deliberate stipulation of this genital organs in order to drive sexual pleasure and remember an ordered sexual desire is for the gift of self oriented towards procreation and unity between the spouses and yet in masturbation sexual pleasure is sought it says here at the last line on on paragraph 20

2352. Here, in masturbation, 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. Instead of mutual self-giving, this is singular selfishness. Essentially, that's one of the grave disorders of masturbation. It trains a person in selfishness. It trains a person in selfishness, where the sexual function is oriented towards when it's ordered, right? It's ordered. towards mutual self-giving ordered towards procreation and unity. And yet masturbation is training in selfishness.

Now, this is an important part because, again, someone might find themselves struggling in a place of like discouragement. The second half of paragraph 2352 says this to form an equitable judgment about the subject's moral responsibility. So here's a person who finds themselves in this pattern of, I've trained myself in selfishness. Remember the quote from St. Augustine the other day that lust became a habit and that once that habit it became like a necessity. So there could be a someone who finds himself, I find it very difficult

to break away from this sin. So are they culpable or are they not as morally responsible? It says one must take into account the affective immaturity. So here is an adolescent who's discovering this reality or the force of acquired habit. This person has given in so much that they find it hard to break free from this. Conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors can lessen if not reduced to a minimum moral culpability. What does this mean? Well, it means that there are some factors that can mitigate one's personal culpability. So it's always going to be a sin. So it's not, someone's not going to say, well, it's a habit. My priest in the last confession told me it's not a sin for me. Like, no, no, no. It's always a sin. It's always a grave

sin, it might, your one's culpability might be lessened because of habit or because of addiction or something like this. Now, I always find it very difficult or very problematic when in confession priests will say things like, oh, don't worry about this. You have a habit now because of this. Because then the counsel is, oh, well, I'm giving myself a pass when it comes to this because I'm not going to struggle against this because it's just a habit for me. I would say I would caution against that in a significant way. At the same time, the number of people that I have also encountered who have been incredibly discouraged by their battle against masturbation and also usually pornography is a great number of people. So we have to find this middle road, this middle

road of, okay, one person might have to find themselves being very patient with themselves when it comes to this lifelong battle, maybe against masturbation or pornography, this disorder, this broken, you know, selfishness that's meant to be a self-gift. Be patient. At the same time, one cannot give themselves a free pass or, I think, priests in confession, we ought not to quickly give someone a free pass because this is a battle they're meant to actually fight. And so I would just encourage that it's a narrow walk, right?

Sometimes it's razor's edge. And sometimes because it's such a razor's edge when it comes to our counsel, what I'm talking about, whether that be, okay, be patient with yourself or whether it be like, no, let's be diligent. I always say these words. I always just say, okay, how about this? How about this? Be patient with yourself, but ruthless with your environment. Here's what I mean. If a person finds himself in a place where, yeah, I keep coming back to pornography, keep coming back to masturbation, like, okay, okay, be patient with yourself and continue to pray, continue to go back to confession, but at the same time, be ruthless with your

environment. Why are you allowing this to still be part of your life? If your phone is your problem, then do something about your phone. Be ruthless with that. If your computer is your problem, whatever. Because typically that's our modern day sources, right? Of pornography in the world right now is through the internet. So if those are the problems, then be ruthless with your environment. And I mean that in a way like this, one can only be patient with themselves and say,

okay, God, let me let your grace come to me when I'm ruthless with my environment, when I know I've taken every step I possibly can to, free myself from having this poison in my home, then I can be patient with myself when I fall. Thank you. You can be patient with yourself when you fall. But if I'm going to compromise with evil and say, it'll be fine, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. You'd be right. It'll be fine. And again, I work in Director of Youth Ministry for our diocese and I work on college campus for the last almost 20 years now. So the reason why I feel like I have something to say about this is because this has been the story of so many men and women that I work with.

this recognition of saying, okay, get rid of the stuff, don't tolerate poison in your life. And then what you're going to find is you can be at peace because it's like, well, it'll be fine, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. You're right, it'll be fine for nine days and on the 10th day it won't be fine anymore. It'll be fine for a week and then the day after that, it won't be fine. It'll be fine for two weeks and then the day after that it won't be fine. So the invitation, of course, In this moment, here's just some counsel. If this is an issue in your life or the life of someone you love, be ruthless with your environment, but patient with yourself.

Be ruthless with your environment, but patient with yourself. Hope that makes sense and hope this wasn't overly long. Gosh. But there's a lot to say because this is a big issue. Tomorrow, we're also talking about a issue that is very present and real in many people's lives, as well as in the life of our culture as we look tomorrow at chastity and homosexuality. We'll look at that.

for those three paragraphs and talk about that and pray through that as well because all of this, again, all of this touches on what's deep in the human heart. And so let's pray for each other because we're talking about stuff that's deep to all of our hearts. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.