Timothy Radcliffe

Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, OP (born 22 August 1945, London) is a Roman Catholic priest and Dominican friar of the English Province, and former Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. He is the only member of the English Province of the Dominicans to have held the office since the Order's foundation in 1216. He is currently the Director of the Las Casas Institute of Blackfriars, Oxford which focuses on the promotion of Social Justice and Human Rights.^[2]

Formation

Timothy Radcliffe was born into a Catholic family in Hendon, London. He studied at Downside School and St John's College, Oxford. He entered the Dominican Order in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1971.

Career

During the mid 1970s Timothy was based at the West London Catholic Chaplaincy at More House, Cromwell Road, London SW7. Timothy Radcliffe taught Holy Scripture at Oxford University at Blackfriars, and was elected provincial of England in 1988.^[3] In 1992 he was elected Master of the Dominican Order and held that office until 2001. During his tenure as Master, he was ex officio Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.

In 2001, after the expiration of his nine-year mandate as Master of the Dominican order, Timothy Radcliffe took a sabbatical year. Starting in 2002, he became again a simple member of the Dominican community of Oxford and does public speaking.

Timothy Radcliffe occasionally presided at the Mass for gay people at Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, which Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, recognised as part of the Archdiocese's mission to gay people.

In 2015 Radliffe was named a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.^[4] This caused controversy due to statements he had made about the "eucharistic" dimension of homosexual sexual activity. The American television network EWTN dropped plans to cover an event in Ireland at which he was scheduled to speak because of Radcliffe's participation. A host at the station called Radcliffe's views "at sharp variance to Catholic teaching.” ^[5] Radcliffe had written, “Certainly [homosexual activity] 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."^[6]

Honours

In 2003, Timothy Radcliffe was made an honorary Doctor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, the University's highest honorary degree.^[7] The Chancellor of the University of Oxford ended his citation with the following words: "I present a man distinguished both for eloquence and for wit, a master theologian who has never disregarded ordinary people, a practical man who believes that religion and the teachings of theology must be constantly applied to the conduct of public life: the Most Reverend Timothy Radcliffe, MA, sometime Master of the Dominican Order and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, for admission to the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity."^[8]

He was the 2007 winner of The Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing, for his book What Is the Point of Being A Christian?

Timothy Radcliffe is Patron of the International Young Leaders Network and helped launch Las Casas Institute, dealing with issues of ethics, governance and social justice. These are both projects of Blackfriars, Oxford.

Incomplete bibliography

References

External links

• A selection of his sermons
• The 15 Letters to the Order written as Master of the Dominican Order from 1993 to 2001