Pope Francis invites all of us to reflect deeply about the family as we prepare for the 2005 Synod on the Family according to some new orientations such as: Our being sexual is meant to be understood developmentally. Our being sexual is something we progressively integrate as power for loving over a lifetime. I feel like we are being invited into an adventure involving new ways of seeing that were previously stifled.
What can it mean to remove the stigma from those divorced and remarried in order to welcome them as Christ would? To stop stigmatizing our lesbian sisters and gay brothers as marginalized and inferior to the rest? Paul says, “You should use your body [clearly from the context, including your being sexual] for the glory of God.” So what is the next step for me to integrate and act upon my being sexual in a loving way?
—Fr. Terry Charlton, SJ, joined the Chicago province and now serves as assistant provincial in Eastern Africa. He is the co-founder and chaplain of St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School for AIDS orphans from the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya.