ROME — Pope Francis has announced his intention to make 21 new cardinals on December 8, among whom is the pro-LGBT Dominican friar Timothy Radcliffe.
In 2023, the pontiff chose the woke friar to open the Vatican Synod on Synodality, who began his words by confessing, “I am old, white, a Westerner, and a man! I don’t know which is worse.”
“All of these aspects of my identity limit my understanding, so I ask for your forgiveness for the inadequacy of my words.” said Father Radcliffe, a leader of the Church’s progressive wing for decades, who was largely sidelined during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II but has found new life under Francis.
Preaching to the synod participants, the former head of the Dominican order described what he sees as the dismal state of the world due to climate change and immigration.
“The future looks grim,” he declared. “Ecological catastrophe threatens the destruction of our home. Wildfires and floods have devoured the world this summer. Small islands begin to disappear under the sea.”
“Millions of people are on the road fleeing from poverty and violence,” he continued. “Hundreds have drowned in the Mediterranean not far from here.”
“Many parents refuse to bring children into a world that appears doomed,” he said. “In China, young people wear T-shirts saying, ‘We are the last generation.’”
The preacher went on to suggest that in the face of the divine, where one stands on doctrinal matters is of little importance.
“If we are truly on the way to the Kingdom, does it really matter whether you align yourselves with so-called traditionalists or progressives?” he asked.
Father Radcliffe has been a vocal supporter of progressive causes for decades, often lending his voice to the lobby to rehabilitate gay sex, insisting there is always time for future “evolution” on Catholic moral teaching, which has made him a darling of the LGBT lobby.
“The question always put is: is the Church’s teaching going to change? That’s not the issue,” Radcliffe said last year in relation to the Church’s moral stance against gay sex. “The issue is, will we love and welcome our fellow human beings?”
“If there are evolutions to happen, they will happen,” he added, “but you don’t start off by asking what changes have to be made.”
Radcliffe has publicly opposed the Church’s ban on admitting men with homosexual tendencies into seminaries to become priests.
In an interview with the London Times in 2005, Radcliffe argued that while “homophobia or misogyny” should be grounds for rejecting a candidate for the priesthood, his homosexuality should not.
“I have no doubt that God does call homosexuals to the priesthood, and they are among the most dedicated and impressive priests I have met,” he stated.
In a 2006 address to the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference, Radcliffe called on the Church to “stand with” gay people.
“We must accompany them as they discern what this means, letting our images be stretched open,” he exhorted. “This means watching ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ reading gay novels, living with our gay friends and listening with them as they listen to the Lord.”
In 2013, Father Radcliffe argued that gay sex can be “Eucharistic,” expressive of Christ’s self-gift in Holy Communion.
We cannot begin with the question of whether gay sex is permitted or forbidden!, he stated. “We must ask what it means, and how far it is Eucharistic.”
“Certainly it can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and non-violent. So in many ways, I would think that it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift,” he said.
“We can also see how it can be expressive of mutual fidelity, a covenantal relationship in which two people bind themselves to each other for ever,” he added.
Upon the announcement that Pope Francis had chosen Father Radcliffe to become a cardinal, papal biographer Austen Ivereigh said he was “delighted” by the appointment, calling Radcliffe “the Gandalf of the Synod.”
For his part, LGBT promoter Father James Martin sent Radcliffe “special congratulations” praising the Dominican friar as “our incredible retreat master.”
