Gay-Friendly Priest to Speak at 51st
Eucharistic Congress
News: Crisis in the Church
by Christine Niles
• ChurchMilitant.com •
January 13, 2016
Father
Timothy Radcliffe will be joined by Cdl. Timothy Dolan and Bp. Robert Barron,
among others
CEBU, Philippines (ChurchMilitant.com) -
Father Timothy
Radcliffe, O.P., who once called gay sexuality "eucharistic," will
kick off the 51st annual Eucharistic Congress as its first speaker.
Held in the
Philippines this year, the Congress will also include New York's Cdl. Timothy
Dolan, Bp. Robert Barron and Cdl. Oswald Gracias, another gay-friendly
Churchman.
Father Radcliffe has caused controversy for publicly
praising same-sex civil unions, once saying they can be "expressive of
Christ's self-gift." In the 2013 Pilling Report titled "Working Group
on Human Sexuality," published by the Church of England, he offered the
following on gay sexuality:
We cannot begin with the question of whether it is permitted
or forbidden! 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.
A former Master General of the international Dominican Order
of Preachers, Fr. Radcliffe is a well-known proponent of progressive ideology.
He often celebrated Mass for the U.K. dissident group Soho Masses Pastoral
Council (now renamed the LGBT Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council), whose gay
Masses in London went on for six years before being shut down by Cdl. Vincent
Nichols.
The Pastoral Council has hosted gay activist speakers, including two openly homosexual priests (one of them "married" to his male partner) at a conference in 2013.
The Pastoral Council has hosted gay activist speakers, including two openly homosexual priests (one of them "married" to his male partner) at a conference in 2013.
Controversy arose when Radcliffe was chosen to be keynote
speaker at the 2013 Divine Mercy Conference in Dublin. A number of groups
called to rescind the invitation, and Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in
Ireland found it sufficiently scandalous to refuse to cover the event. Instead,
EWTN Radio devoted an episode featuring commentary from a priest from the
Courage apostolate (a faithful Catholic organization that ministers to those
struggling with same-sex attraction) to discuss Radcliffe's heterodox leanings.
In 2012, in the liberal U.K. paper The Tablet, he praised
same-sex civil unions: "This is not to denigrate committed love of people
of the same sex. This too should be cherished and supported, which is why
church leaders are slowly coming to support same-sex civil unions. The God of
love can be present in every true love."
In 2006, Radcliffe delivered a keynote speech in Los Angeles
titled "The Church as Sign of Hope and Freedom," and challenged
Catholics to "stand with" homosexuals.
We must accompany them as they discern what this means,
letting our images be stretched open. This means watching "Brokeback
Mountain," reading gay novels, living with our gay friends and listening
with them as they listen to the Lord. ... We are not a sign of God's freedom until
we can dare to belong to each other across every theological boundary.
And in a 2005 Tablet article, Radcliffe strongly advocated
for the possibility of homosexual priests, in contradiction to Church practice
forbidding those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies entry into the
priesthood.
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. ... And we may presume that God will continue to call both homosexuals and
heterosexuals to the priesthood because the Church needs the gifts of both.
Radcliffe has also spoken in favor of female ordination as
well as relaxing restrictions on Holy Communion to the divorced and civilly
remarried. In an article for the Jesuit magazine America, he wrote of a
"new way of being church," expressing the hope that "a way will
be found to welcome divorced and remarried people back to communion. And, most
important, that women will be given real authority and voice in the
Church." He went on to advocate female ordination to the diaconate,
questioning the Pope's judgment on banning women from the ministerial
priesthood.
The first Eucharistic Congress took place in Lille, France
in 1881, and began as a local event meant to increase devotion to the Real
Presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. As the event grew, it spread to
other cities and countries. The 51st Eucharistic Congress will take place this
year in Cebu, Philippines, and describes its aim as manifesting "an
underlying vision of 'Eucharistic Ecclesiology' which is oriented toward
COMMUNION and ONENESS in the community that is the Church and which naturally
seeks to reach out to all, especially those who are at the fringes of society
... ."
Father Radcliffe is scheduled to open the first plenary
session January 20, with a talk titled "The Christian Virtue of
Hope."
Christine Niles is a staff writer, producer
and anchor for ChurchMilitant.com
Follow Christine on
Twitter: @ChristineNiles1
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I am appalled at this taking place in a Eucharistic Congress. They have pushed their agenda down everyone's throat even though the Church specifically teaches that Homosexuality is a MORTAL SIN. This twisted clergy that are running things must be defrocked!!!!
This blogger is OUTRAGED. PRAY PEOPLE WE ARE IN DARK TIMES.
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I am appalled at this taking place in a Eucharistic Congress. They have pushed their agenda down everyone's throat even though the Church specifically teaches that Homosexuality is a MORTAL SIN. This twisted clergy that are running things must be defrocked!!!!
This blogger is OUTRAGED. PRAY PEOPLE WE ARE IN DARK TIMES.
