(LifeSiteNews) — A prominent LGBT advocate and Dominican priest who is leading a retreat for participants of the Synod on Synodality directly contradicted the words of Scripture and advocated against Scriptural morals during his instruction to Synod participants.
Addressing participants of the Synod on Synodality, Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., appeared to directly contradict the words of Christ in Sacred Scripture.
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Radcliffe’s third spiritual talk for the three-day retreat that the Synod participants are having was on “friendship.” Speaking to the retreat in Sacrofano, some 30 minutes outside of Rome, Radcliffe cited Scripture to note that Catholics hope for heaven.
Continuing, he stated, “of course not every hope or opinion is legitimate. But orthodoxy is spacious and heresy is narrow.”
“The Lord leads his sheep out of the small enclosure of the sheepfold into the wide-open pastures of our faith,” said Radcliffe. “At Easter, he will lead them out of the small locked room into the unbounded vastness of God, ‘God’s plenty’.”
Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP at Synod retreat contradicts Scripture: “Of course not every hope or opinion is legitimate. But orthodoxy is spacious and heresy is narrow.”
Matt 7:14: “How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it.” pic.twitter.com/ZfwtWfJMIP— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) October 2, 2023
With this opening section of his address, the notoriously pro-LGBT priest appeared to place himself in direct opposition to the words of Scripture.
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St. Matthew writes in his Gospel, presenting the words of Christ during the Sermon on the Mount:
Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. (Matthew 7:13-15)
Radcliffe, a regular celebrant of LGBT Masses in his native U.K., has advocated for the divorced and “remarried” to receive Holy Communion and has argued that homosexuals “are among the most dedicated and impressive priests I have met.”
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His comments proposing a “spacious” path of orthodoxy appeared in the context of a Synod that is based on multiple themes that run contrary to Catholic doctrine, including on LGBT issues and arguments surrounding the male-only priesthood.
The text of the Instrumentum Laboris (IL) underpinning this month’s Synod highlights topics such as women’s diaconal “ordination,” married priests, and a need to “welcome” the “remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people.” It also promotes Amoris Laetitia’s argument that the divorced and “remarried” can be admitted to Holy Communion as a settled point of “magisterial and theological teaching.”
As LifeSite has reported, the Dominican cited this document in his speeches given on October 1. “The IL mentions also gay people and people in polygamous marriages,” Radcliffe said in his address. “They long for a renewed Church in which they will feel fully at home, recognized, affirmed and safe.”
Radcliffe cited the heterodox and openly homosexual priest Fr. James Alison, a former Dominican, as part of his comments supporting the LGBT movement.
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But Radcliffe’s promotion of anti-Scriptural messages is a constant theme, occurring in every one of his Synodal talks so far. His second speech on October 2, on the theme of “Conversation on the way to Emmaus,” asked the audience to focus on asking, “Where are you?”:
Perhaps this is the first question with which we should break the silences that separate us. Not: “Why do you hold these ridiculous views on liturgy?” Or “Why are you a heretic or a patriarchal dinosaur?” or “Why are you deaf to me?” But “Where are you?” “What are you worried about?”
This is who I am. God invites Adam and Eve to come out of hiding and be seen. If we too step out into the light and let ourselves be seen as we are, we shall find words for each other.
Continuing, the Dominican alluded to Adam and Eve’s fear of being seen in their nakedness by God (Genesis 3). They realized they were naked as a direct result of having committed the first sin. But Radcliffe posited the Synod members “not to fear nakedness,” in what appeared to be an argument to not fear the effects of sin.
In the preparation for this Synod, often it has been the clergy who have been most reluctant to step out into the light and share their worries and doubts. Maybe we are afraid of being seen to be naked. How can we encourage each other not to fear nakedness?
Radcliffe’s direct contradiction of Scripture, particularly regarding the wide and narrow paths of “orthodoxy” and “heresy,” have been swiftly highlighted and criticized by Catholics. But those particularly supportive of the Synod on Synodality’s process and agenda have warmly welcomed the heterodox Dominican’s words.