News

Father Radcliffe denies writing article linking African rejection of same-sex ‘blessings’ to foreign money – LifeSite

Comments Off on Father Radcliffe denies writing article linking African rejection of same-sex ‘blessings’ to foreign money – LifeSite 5

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The president of the African bishops conference told LifeSiteNews today that Father Timothy Radcliffe denied authoring an article in which he suggested Africa’s rejection of Fiducia Supplicans was due to the influence of foreign money.

Fielding a question from this correspondent at a Synod on Synodality press briefing today, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo weighed in on a controversial article recently published in L’Osservatore Romano – the Vatican-owned daily newspaper.

Entitled “The Spirit of the Synod and the Ecclesiology of Hats,” the piece was attributed to Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., containing his name at the bottom of the article.

The October 12 article, written very much in Radcliffe’s style, contained direct reference to the African bishops’ widespread rejection of Fiducia Supplicans’ promotion of same-sex “blessings.” [The article was first published in English in The Tablet in April.]

It added that Ambongo – president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)  – “sees it [Fiducia Supplicans] as a symptom of a decadent Western culture.”

The article further alleged that the African bishops’ rejection of Fiducia Supplicans was due to outside influence and money:

Another concern raised by Fiducia Supplicans is that there appears to have been no consultation – even with bishops or other Vatican offices – before its release; not exactly, perhaps, a good example of synodality. African bishops are under intense pressure from Evangelicals, with American money; from Russian Orthodox, with Russian money; and from Muslims, with money from the rich Gulf countries. There should have been a discussion with them before, not after, the statement was released. Whatever we think about the statement, when we face tensions, and to overcome them, we all need to think and engage with one another on a deep level.

At the time, news of the article made waves among observers, with many shocked at Radcliffe’s argument when the African bishops had been quite clear they rejected Fiducia Supplicans due to cultural and religious concerns about its contents.

But Ambongo today conveyed the message that Radcliffe denied writing the article.

Questioned by this correspondent in Rome, Ambongo said that “it’s important to clarify things otherwise people may think we are hiding something. We have also read this article in which we are accused of having taken money from Russia, from the Gulf countries and from the United States through the Pentecostal churches.”

He downplayed the possibility of Radcliffe having written the text, adding that Radcliffe attested to only having read it on October 21 and being “shocked” at the contents being promulgated under his name:

But we are at the synod and we follow the teachings of Fr. Radcliffe and I do not recognize at all what Fr. Radcliffe said in the article you are mentioning.

I can tell you that today Fr. Radcliffe came to me before we began, because he also read the article only yesterday (Oct 21) and he is shocked that such things may have been written and attributed to him.

The cardinal urged journalists to perform their “duty” and to “clarify things,” adding about the L’Osservatore Romano article that “Fr. Radcliffe has never said these things and this does not correspond at all to his personality.”

“If he had said so, or said these things somewhere else, but he was there with us and nobody felt accused,” continued Ambongo, adding his assurance that “this is something that is totally untrue; this has got nothing to do with what Fr. Radcliffe has said.”

The prominent cardinal, who serves also as a member of Pope Francis’ C9 council of cardinal advisors, suggested that the article had been deliberately intended to “create an incident.”

“Fortunately this has not happened,” he said. “Fr. Radcliffe never said these things, and this doesn’t correspond to his personality. Nobody felt accused. This is totally untrue.”

If the testimony Radcliffe gave, and which Ambongo related to the press, is true, it could mean that someone in the Holy See managed to publish an article in the daily newspaper of the Vatican and falsely attribute it to Radcliffe.

L’Osservatore Romano’s contents are curated carefully by officials in the Holy See, and for such an incident to take place would be remarkable, to say the least.

At the time of writing, the article remains online and no clarification has been made. Given that the newspaper also publishes daily summaries of the synod press briefings – in which today’s revelation was made by Ambongo – it will be interesting to see if any action is taken.

Full coverage of the Synod on Synodality can be found at this link here on LifeSiteNews, and on the X account of LifeSite’s Vatican correspondent.

Previous ArticleNext Article