Irish conference rejects calls to ban leading Dominican

Organisers of Ireland’s largest Catholic conference have dismissed calls for Fr Timothy Radcliffe’s invitation to be revoked over his views on homosexuality, writes Sarah Mac Donald.

The National Consecration ­of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and a blog, “Protect the Pope”, had said the former master of the Dominicans should be dropped as a keynote speaker at this weekend’s annual International Conference of Divine Mercy at the Royal Dublin Society.

The calls were in response to Fr Radcliffe’s contribution to last year’s Anglican Pilling Report on human sexual ethics in which he said of homosexuality: “Certainly it can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and non-violent. So … it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift.”

The Catholic television station EWTN has said it will not cover the conference, citing Fr Radcliffe’s views on homosexuality.

Fr Radcliffe told The Tablet that he was surprised about the objections since his talks will “have nothing to do at all with homosexuality”.