Haunted,

Thinking more about it, her paranoia may simply be a very childish reaction, and, if that is the case, may not signal any remaining passion potential in her.

Imagine a young child who stops liking his toy and throws the toy somewhere in his toy chest and forgets about it.

Then somebody comes and wants to play with the toy.

Some children would go "whatever", but others would turn possessive and not want to let go of the toy, even though they have no use for the toy, but just because more possessions is better than fewer possessions.

She might be along these lines. Actually, it might quite likely be the case, because this kind of basic, immature, straightforward possessiveness just for the sake of possessing is a childish reaction, and all her other reactions are childish as well. When your priest picked up on your wife's inability to see shades of color, he was essentially saying that she is childish - the ability to see and appreciate nuances and subtleties and see the whole range of shades of color comes with experience of living. Your wife seems childish in that respect - things are black and white to her.