Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP to become a Cardinal

Oct 6th, 2024

Fr Timothy Radcliffe ICN screenshot

Source: Vatican Media/ICN

After the Sunday Angelus today, Pope Francis announced that he will hold a Consistory for the creation of 21 new Cardinals on 8 December 2024, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The theologian, Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe is one of the cardinal-elects named.

Fr Timothy Radcliffe, born 22 August 1945 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.

He served as director of the Las Casas Institute of Blackfriars, Oxford, which promotes social justice and human rights. In 2015, Radcliffe was named a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

He led retreats for participants in the Synod on synodality in October 2023, and September 2024.

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.

The creation of Fr Timothy Radcliffe as Cardinal will bring the total number of English Cardinals to four. The others are Cardinal Vincent Nichols (2014-present), Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald (2019-present) and Cardinal Arthur Roche (2022-present).

Fr Nicholas Crowe OP, Prior Provincial of the English Province, congratulated him on behalf of the friars:

"The English Dominicans in modern times have brought forth a number of influential writers and thinkers to serve the worldwide Church. Fr Timothy has continued this trend, and we his brethren warmly congratulate him on this new honour."

The Consistory, set to take place with representatives from all over the world, will fall before the opening of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope and after the conclusion of the Second Session of the Synod on Synodality in the Vatican. The Cardinal-elects hail from around the world.

Here is a list of the future Cardinals named today:

1. H E Mgr Angelo Acerbi, Apostolic Nuncio

2. H E Mgr Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO Archbishop of Lima (Peru)

3. H E Mgr Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC C.M., Archbishop of Santiago del Estero (Primado de la Argentina).

4. H E Mgr Luis Gerardo CABRERA HERRERA, O.F.M., Archbishop of Guayaquil (Ecuador).

5. H E Mgr Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB Archbishop of Santiago de Chile (Chile).

6 Archbishop Tarcisio Isao KIKUCHI, SVD, Archbishop of Tokyo (Japan).

7. HE Mgr Pablo Virgilio SIONGCO DAVID, Bishop of Kalookan (Philippines).

8. H E Mgr Ladislav NEMET, S.V.D., Archbishop of Beograd -Smederevo, (Serbia).

9. H E Mgr Jaime SPENGLER, O.F.M., Archbishop of Porto Alegre (Brasil).

10. H E Mgr Ignace BESSI DOGBO, Archbishop of Abidjan (Ivory Coast).

11. H.E. Mgr Jean-Paul VESCO, O.P., Archbishop of Alger (Algeria).