Synod retreat leader: The Gospel challenges African Catholics to welcome homosexuality

May 28, 2024

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CWN Editor's Note: In an address to a conference organized by LGBT+ Catholics Westminster (England), Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, said that the Gospel challenges the Church in Africa to welcome homosexuality.

Commenting on the African bishops’ rejection of Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, Father Radcliffe said that “never before have almost all the bishops of a continent rejected a Vatican document.”

“It is not about how does our side win,” said the former master general of the Dominican Order. “It is how can the Church fulfil her vocation to be the place in which all of humanity finds home and joy.”

“Every culture offers gifts and is challenged,” he continued. “The gospel is to be inculturated in every culture but it challenges every culture. So some people, like Cardinal Ambongo [the head of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar], will argue that homosexuality is foreign to African cultures and so cannot be welcomed. I would say that here the gospel offers a challenge.”

Father Radcliffe preached two meditations each day during the pre-synodal retreat to participants in the October 2023 session of the Synod of Bishops; he also spoke during the synod session.

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• Posted by: grateful1 - May. 29, 2024 9:50 PM ET USA

  I submit that the Gospel offers a challenge to Father Radcliffe, not to the faithful bishops of Africa.

• Posted by: feedback - May. 28, 2024 7:46 AM ET USA

  Quote: Radcliffe said that “never before have almost all the bishops of a continent rejected a Vatican document.” That's because never before has a Vatican document created such gaping loophole for rejection of Catholic sexual morality. Thank God for the Bishops of Africa!