Conservatives, Progressives, LGBTQ+ People, and Jars of Jam

Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, a long-time supporter of ministry to LGBTQ+ people, was recently asked if he was a progressive or conservative, according to Katholisch.de. He responded “As a Catholic, I cannot accept being pigeonholed in such a narrow way.” He went on to say that labels are only suitable for jars of jam, not for people, paraphrasing the writer Richard Flanagan.  

Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe

Radcliffe was responding to criticism about a recent interview he gave to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica,  in which he supported blessings for people in same-gender couples.  Katholisch.de stated:

“Regarding the Vatican document on extra-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, ‘Fiducia supplicans,’ he stated that all people are welcome; at the same time, consultations prior to its publication could have helped to reduce tensions.”

Although he has long supported LGBTQ+ ministry, Radcliffe was particularly direct in advocating for more conversation on the matter, when he served as one of the chaplains to the 2023 and 2024 Assemblies for the Synod on Synodality.  At the 2023 pre-Assembly retreat, he said of LGBTQ+ people: “We must journey towards a Church in which they are no longer at the margin but in the centre.”

During the Assembly in 2024, Radcliffe published an article in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, in which he stated:

“It is necessary to open ourselves to other cultures, other sisters and brothers of the Kingdom. Brothers all! But Pope Francis also asks us to open the Church to everyone, whoever they may be now. Todos, todos, todos (All, all, all): the divorced and remarried, gays, transgender [people].”

In a similar situation, during a National Catholic Reporter interview, the new president of the Paulist Fathers, Father René Constanza, CSP, was asked: “You are some of the few priests — both among religious orders and diocesan — that minister today to LGBTQ+ Catholics, preaching a more welcoming church. How can you do that in spite of the harsh critiques you constantly face from the most conservative groups in the U.S. church?”

Father René Constanza, CSP

Costanza responded:

“I personally believe that I’m not into the conservative and liberal aspect of this dichotomy. I am more about bringing the Gospel and the values out there and drawing people closer to Christ and to Christ’s church. And if that means that we have to do like Christ did, and bring other people to embrace God’s love, regardless of who they are, that’s what we do.

“We are there to make people understand that they are loved, that they belong and they are worth it, regardless of their immigration status, regardless of their sexual orientation, regardless of their past. We are being Christ-like to them.

“So it is important for us to not get caught in this dichotomy. Pope Francis had a word to say that it’s more of a ‘culture war.’ We’re not going to get into that. I’m not encouraging the Paulists to get into that, but what I am encouraging as president is for us to be Gospel-centered in how we approach people and church.”

It’s a good sign when two promient church leaders attest to the fact that welcoming LGBTQ+ people to the Catholic Church is not a progressive issue but a gospel issue.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, March 2, 2026