28 May 2024, The Tablet

Leading Dominican describes ‘conversion’ taking place at heart of Catholic Church

Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, former Master of the Dominicans, has said there is a “profound conversion which is taking place at the centre of the Church, as she reaches out to people who have been marginalised and rejected, and says, this is your home. We are incomplete without you.”

In the keynote address to one-day conference, “LGBT+ Catholics in a Synodal Church”, at Farm Street’s Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, marking the 25th anniversary of LGBT+ Catholics Westminster, Fr Radcliffe said that when the Synod opened last October, many of the participants shared Pope Francis’ eagerness to affirm that the Church really is for all. “It is where we should all be at ease.”

It was this message of hope and love which led to the foundation of the Masses in Soho 25 years ago, he added.

“At the Synod, this message was repeated, but it was evident that many people were nervous of it. Some participants felt uneasy at even sitting next to Father James Martin SJ, who has been for many years a brave champion of the warm inclusion of gay people in the Church. One person even refused to sit next to him. Others of us too felt the chill as I did.”

He conceded that in the document produced at the end of this first session, the synthesis, the term LGBT+ was dropped, although it has been used in other Vatican documents and by the Pope. “So there seemed to be a certain retreat from the openness we had hoped for.”

He added: “The Church is called to be open to all people, whatever they love and live, and to all cultures. What if some cultures are not open to gay people? How can we embrace in the universal Church cultures which exclude people?”

Fr Radcliffe, who gave his address by a specially prepared video because he was committed to a baptism on Saturday afternoon in Oxford and unable to be there in person, said he wished to signal that the Synod faces this double challenge, of a proper gospel openness to all, with an openness also to all cultures.

“How are we to live both? This will be a major challenge for the next session of the Synod. It is not about how does our side win. That is the game of competitive politics. It is how can the Church fulfil her vocation to be the place in which all of humanity finds home and joy.”

The Mass included music specially composed to mark the anniversary with special intercession included in the Bidding Prayers at all Farm Street Masses on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.

The newly-elected Lord Mayor of the City of Westminster, Cllr Robert Rigby, and the Lady Mayoress were among those present.