Now, if you were taught 40 years ago that masturbation, in and of itself, was a mortal sin, that was incorrect and a gross oversimplification. Some teachers taught that way, and it was wrong. The Baltimore Catechism (and other national catechisms of the 1950s and earlier) taught that for a sin to be serious, it had to be a serious matter, known to be serious, and done with the intent of doing serious wrong. Almost all the statements you made of what you learned in the 1960s, were incorrect theology in the 1950s. Maybe you were taught wrong, or maybe you understood wrong.

I was taught by the Salesian Fathers and Brothers at an all-boys grammar school in Bolton, Lancashire, from 1962 to 1969 (by which time I was 18). To name-drop, I went to both the primary and secondary school that Danny Boyle attended, though he was about five years below me (I wonder whether I ever bullied him on the school bus...). I'm a pretty honest broker, Joe. I don't make stuff up, and I was one of the brightest in a bloody bright year. I certainly didn't understand wrong. That's what those guys were like. It sort of confirms in a way, possibly, what I was saying about the Vatican officialdom not knowing what the ground troops are actually propagating to their flocks.