THE English theologian and former global Master of the Dominicans, Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, is to be created a cardinal by Pope Francis. Announced on Sunday as certainly one of 21 recent names from all over the world, he’ll bring the overall of English cardinals within the Roman Catholic Church to 4 — for what’s believed to be the primary time ever.
A widely regarded preacher and writer, Fr Radcliffe has been a outstanding figure in Vatican circles lately. He was appointed a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and led the retreat last yr before the primary Synod on Synodality in Rome. As Master of the Dominican Order from 1992 to 2001, he was also Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas. Since then, he has been based at Blackfriars in Oxford.
Born in London in 1945, he was educated on the Roman Catholic Downside School, in Somerset, after which on the University of Oxford. An enthusiast for the Second Vatican Council, he became a Dominican in 1965, and was ordained priest in 1971.
Speaking to the Church Times in 2019 (Features, 20 December 2019), Fr Radcliffe said: “The great necessary titles of Christianity are ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’. Whether you might be ‘Reverend’ or ‘Most Reverend’ or ‘Extremely Oily Reverend’, or whatever, these are a very powerful: Brother and Sister. . . I knew after I was Master of the Order, if I attempted to be greater than certainly one of the brethren, it might be a disaster.”
The next consistory, at which the 21 recent cardinals shall be presented with their red birettas, shall be on 8 December, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, at St Peter’s, in Rome. This can also be the date on which the second session of the Synod on Synodality ends, and the brand new “Jubilee of Hope” yr begins.
Before Sunday’s news, Pope Francis had already named 92 of the lads who may (in the event that they survive him and are still eligible) vote for his successor. This recent influx signifies that he could have appointed more cardinals than his last two predecessors did between them, although, once cardinals reach the age of 80 — as Fr Radcliffe will next August — they are not any longer eligible to vote in the subsequent conclave.
