IN THE MID-EIGHTIES, when Timothy Radcliffe was Prior of Blackfriars in Oxford, he was sometimes invited to preach to undergraduates at Sunday Mass. The chaplaincy was always fairly full, but once word got out that “Father Tim” was coming, it was packed. Here was a preacher of thrilling contradictions: orthodox but open-minded, humorous but deadly serious. He never seemed to want to be the centre of attention, but to “make himself transparent to the Lord”: “He must increase; I must decrease.” He quoted St Augustine: “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” Our hearts burned within us.
17 October 2024, The Tablet
The listening cardinal
Church decisions can sometimes be hard to comprehend, but in appointing Timothy Radcliffe a cardinal Pope Francis seems to have scored a bullseye.
Timothy Radcliffe with Pope Francis
Ordo Praedicatorum
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