Synod Retreat Master: I Don’t ‘Fully Understand’ How Young Gay Catholics Should Live-Out the Church’s Teaching

Father Timothy Radcliffe, one of two spiritual assistants at the October session of the Synod on synodality, has written an article for the Vatican newspaper on gay Catholics.

“The challenge, for gay people as for everyone, is to learn to express love appropriately, respecting the dignity of the other as a child of God,” he wrote. “I am convinced of the fundamental wisdom of the Church’s teaching, but I still do not fully understand how it should be lived by young gay Catholics who accept their sexuality and rightly desire to express their affection.”

He continued:

This cannot happen only through the denial of desire. For St. Thomas Aquinas, our passions are the driving force of our return to God. Our desires are given by God. Desires need to be educated, purified and freed from an illusory fantasy, but in all desires there is a desire for what is good and for God. The commandments are not given to deny our desires, but to direct them toward their true end.

The Church’s teaching is already developing, as it is refreshed by lived experience: gay people are no longer seen only in terms of sexual acts, but as our brothers and sisters who, according to Pope Francis, can be blessed.

My intuition is that most gay Catholics in mature, committed relationships usually go beyond a great interest in sex. What they seek above all is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things” (Galatians 5:22ff).

“The accompaniment of gay people is seen in some parts of the Church as evidence of Western decadence,” he added. “But the Church must fight for the life and dignity of gay people, still subject to capital punishment in 10 countries and criminal prosecution in 70. They have a right to live.”

Father Radcliffe, 79, was master of the Dominican order from 1992 to 2001. He preached meditations during the retreat that preceded the October 2023 Synod session; a similar pre-Synod retreat begins on September 30.

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