Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

to be emphasized that, precisely because of its intrinsic depth, the sexual power has destructive
effects in men as well as in women when it is egoistically degraded. It requires discipline.
It is disastrous that illicit sexual practices (premarital and extramarital intercourse, homosexuality)
are called 'love' by many today. 43
§ 4 The Protective Power
1. It is proper to man to defend himself against the violation of his intimate personal sphere.
Thus, for example, emotional shame lives in each man, i.e., the involuntary tendency not to
expose the most personal things to others, such as, for instance, those the adolescent records
in his or her diary. Emotional shame makes itself most clearly felt when it is a question of
guilt or sin. In addition to emotional shame, there is also social shame which is aroused when
man believes his prestige to be endangered among his peers, as, for instance, a result of
gauche behavior or old-fashioned clothing. Since profanation in the sexual realm has especially
fateful consequences, the preservative power of the tendency to shame is here so
strongly pronounced that, when we speak of shame purely and simply, we mean neither emotional
nor social, but sexual shame. It is not the result of education or habituation nor a consequence
of fear and disgust, but a protective power given by nature that, as a primal human
feeling, is to pre- vent „a slip into the sphere of the merely instinctive.“ 44 At puberty, shame
awakens even if the environment consciously attempts to teach other notions to the young
person. With many children it begins to be aroused around the fifth year and is present with
all children by the tenth year. To what degree brutal intrusion into the sphere of sexual intimacy
is a profanation is shown by linguistic usage which, to all intents and purposes, speaks
here of the use of violence and of violation. Sexual shame creates distance and unites in a new
way at the same time. It is a 'reserve' in the twofold sense of the word: as a defensive reservedness
and as an accumulation of values that some day will be given away in marriage.
As a defense, shame is a „protection against indiscriminately grasping instinctive life.“ 45 At
the same time it allows love to grow and to mature by „standing as an angel of reverence at
the gate of mystery that shall one day be opened.“ 46 The protective power is essentially related
to marriage and receives its meaning in marriage, even if in another form.
2. Even if the forms of expression of shame are subject to historical change, such as in fashion,
a sexually overstimulated climate nevertheless prevails in modern society. Shamelessness
is spreading publicly, especially in the world of entertainment, in commercial advertising, as
well as in certain films and illustrated magazines. These 'products' are not infrequently on
such a low intellectual level that sexualisation and idiocy lend each other a hand. A cleverly
led attack against every kind of shame, against the emotional, but particularly against the sexual
is underway. The scandalous exposure and indiscretion that seeks to disguise itself as
'emancipation' endangers young people particularly and tears down walls that are built as protecting
ramparts around marriage and family.
§ 5 Eros as a covetous Love
Among many peoples, the patriarchal practice prevailed for centuries according to which the
parents determined the marriage partner without asking the children. Here agricultural, dynastic,
and political interests frequently played the decisive role. But it must also be noted that, at
43
Cf. Joseph Höffner, Sexual-Moral im Licht des Glaubens, Themen und Thesen, Vol 5, 8th ed (Cologne: Presseamt
des Erzbistums, 1980); idem, Nur Du -und Du für immer (Cologne, 1980).
44
Th Müncker, Die psychologischen Grundlagen der katholischen Sittenlehre, 4th ed (Diisseldorf,1953), 285.
45
Ibid, 288.
46
E Masure, Die Vergeistigung der Ehe, in J Viollet, Vom Wesen und Geheimnis der Familie (Salzburg [n d]),
225.
51