Timothy Radcliffe

The Most Reverend Timothy Radcliffe OP
Master of the Order of Preachers
Church	Roman Catholic Church
In office	1992–2001
Predecessor	Damian Byrne
Successor	Carlos Azpiroz Costa
Personal details
Born	(1945-08-22) 22 August 1945 London, England
Nationality	British
Denomination	Catholic
Residence	Blackfriars, Oxford
Occupation	Priest, academic, theologian

Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, OP (born 22 August 1945) is an English Roman Catholic priest and Dominican friar who served as master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. He is the only member of the English Province to hold that office.

Radcliffe served as director of the Las Casas Institute of Blackfriars, Oxford which promotes social justice and human rights. He has been a supporter of outreach to LGBT Catholics.

Formation

Timothy Radcliffe was born on 22 August 1945 in London. He studied at Downside School in Somerset 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, Radcliffe was based at the West London Catholic Chaplaincy. He taught scriptures at Oxford and was elected provincial of England in 1988. In 1992, he was elected master of the Dominican Order, holding that office until 2001. During his tenure as master, Radcliffe served as ex-officio grand chancellor of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

In 2001, after the expiration of his term as master, Radcliffe took a sabbatical year. In 2002, he became again a simple member of the Dominican community of Oxford. He now carries out public speaking and occasionally presides at the mass for LGBT people at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in London.

In 2015, Radcliffe was named a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. This posting caused controversy due to his statements about the "eucharistic" dimension of LBGT sexual activity. The American television network EWTN dropped plans to cover an event in Ireland due to Radcliffe's participation. A host said that Radcliffe's positions were "...at sharp variance to Catholic teaching.”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."

Honours

In 2003, Oxford awarded Radcliffe an honorary Doctor of Divinity. The Chancellor, the Right Honorable Christopher Patten, ended the award 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."

Radcliffe received the 2007 Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing for his book What Is the Point of Being A Christian? Radcliffe is a 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.

Radcliffe is also patron of Catholic AIDS Prevention and Support, Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament, and 'Embrace the Middle East, as well as board member of Fellowship and Aid to the Church in the East.

Bibliography

Books

• Sing a New Song. The Christian Vocation. Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1999. ISBN 1-871552-70-2
• I Call You Friends. London: Continuum, 2001. ISBN 0-8264-7262-1
• Seven Last Words. London: Burns & Oates, 2004. ISBN 0-86012-365-0
• What Is the Point of Being A Christian?. London and New York: Burns & Oates, 2005. ISBN 0-86012-369-3
• Just One Year: Prayer and Worship through the Christian Year, edited by Timothy Radcliffe with Jean Harrison. London: Darton, Longman and Todd for CAFOD and Christian Aid, 2006. ISBN 0-232-52669-9
• Why Go to Church? The Drama of the Eucharist London: Continuum, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8264-9956-1. Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent book 2009.
• Christians and Sexuality in the Time of AIDS, with Lytta Bassett. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-9911-0
• Take the Plunge: Living Baptism and Confirmation. London: Burns & Oates, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4411-1848-6.
• The Hope that is Within You: Interviewed by Raymond Friel. Redemptorist Publications. April 2016. ISBN 9780852314630
• ”Alive in God:A Christian Imagination”London:Bloomsbury Continuum 2019 ISBN 978-1-4729-7020-6

Articles

• "I was hungry and you gave me food". The Tablet. 264 (8856): 17. 7 August 2010.

Letters to the Order

• Vowed to Mission (1994)
• The Wellspring of Hope. Study and the Annunciation of the Good News (1996)
• The Identity of Religious Today (1996)
• Dominican Freedom and Responsibility. Towards a Spirituality of Government (1997)
• The Bear and the Nun : What is the Sense of Religious Life Today ! (1998)
• The Promise of Life (1998)
• The Rosary (1998)
• Letter to our brothers and sisters in initial formation (1999)
• To Praise, to Bless, to Preach. The Mission of the Dominican Family (2000)
• The Throne of God (2000)
• St Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) Patroness of Europe (2000)
• The Parable of the Good Samaritan (2001)
• "A city set on a hilltop cannot be hidden" A Contemplative Life (2001)
• Mission to a Runaway World: Future Citizens of the Kingdom (2002)

External links

• A selection of Radcliffe's sermons
• The 15 Letters to the Order written by Radcliffe as Master of the Dominican Order between 1993 to 2001