Timothy Radcliffe

Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, OP (born 22 August 1945) is an English 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 order's 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.

Timothy Radcliffe was born on 22 August 1945 in London.

He studied at Worth Preparatory School (Worth School) in Sussex, Downside School in Somerset and St John's College, Oxford.

He entered the Dominican Order in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1971.

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 previously led the Las Casas Institute, dealing which leads with issues of ethics, governance and social justice at Blackfriars, Oxford.

He now preaches and carries out public speaking internationally.

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."

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

Radcliffe is also patron of Positive Faith, the main ministry of Catholic AIDS Prevention and Support, sits on the Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament, and is a patron of Embrace the Middle East.

In 2015, Radcliffe was named a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Although not a topic Radcliffe has often written on in his numerous publications, he has publicly defended the teaching of the Catholic Church on same-sex marriage:

"The Catholic Church does not oppose gay marriage. It considers it to be impossible... Marriage is founded on the glorious fact of sexual difference and its potential fertility. Without this, there would be no life on this planet, no evolution, no human beings, no future. Marriage takes all sorts of forms, from the alliance of clans through bride exchange to modern romantic love. We have come to see that it implies the equal love and dignity of man and woman. But everywhere and always, it remains founded on the union in difference of male and female. Through ceremonies and sacrament this is given a deeper meaning, which for Christians includes the union of God and humanity in Christ."

In January 2023, Pope Francis named Radcliffe to lead a three-day preparatory retreat for participants in the synod on synodality in October 2023.