"I have no idea who," the Briton, raised by Pope Francis to the cardinal, told the London-based newspaper The Telegraph on Tuesday.
He went on to say he doesn’t think a person’s sexual identity is particularly important: “I’m not worried about someone being gay – I’d be worried if they didn’t love anyone.”
Radcliffe has been celebrating church services with London's gay community for decades. Since the 1980s, he has been campaigning for AIDS patients. How it came about, the cardinal explained in conversation with the newspaper.
He reported how he met an AIDS-sick man at a conference in Staffordshire on the Catholic Church and Aids in 1986.
At the greeting of peace, he embraced him and thought, “I’ve never embraced anyone with AIDS – will this be the end?” Radcliffe comments retrospectively: "We were very ignorant."
Later in the year, he had a doctor in St. Stephen's Hospital in Chelsea. There, the same man was dying and kept asking for Timothy.
"As provided, I arrived shortly before his death and gave him the last oiling."
"Last Oiling" used to be the anointing of the sick, a sacrament of the Catholic Church that a seriously ill person can receive for strengthening.
"Illusory idea of freedom"
The transgender debate looks at Radcliffe in a differentiated way. In his opinion, there are very few people "who suffer from gender dysphoria. You have to welcome them." On the other hand, he does not believe that his gender can simply be chosen by decision of the will, because biology is fundamental. That, in his view, would be a "false, illusory notion of freedom."
The 80-year-old Dominican does not consider women in the Catholic Church to be an oppressed minority. With reference to the conversion of Anglican priests to Catholicism because of the consecration of women in the Anglican Church and with regard to the world church contexts, the cardinal considers the priestly ordination of women to be difficult.
Despite this, he said: "I am in favour of rapidly advancing the consecration of women to deacone." Radcliffe emphasized that it was a "very clericalist view" to refer to only priests as significant in the church. He added: "Saints are more important than priests."
Take alienated cardinals with them
Addressing the cardinal assembly meeting at the Vatican on Wednesday and Thursday, the Briton said: "Many cardinals feel there should be at least one meeting a year." Pope Francis had formed a group with which he had met several times a year – “as part of a movement towards a more radical form of counselling.”
The consistory, in his eyes, could be a way of re-enrolling those who have become alienated from the past pope's course of action. It is important that the cardinals are satisfied: "A church that is unhappy cannot proclaim the Gospel."
Pope Leo XIV was elected precisely for this reason: "To integrate the people who had alienated themselves from Francis" and to continue the work of his predecessor. “We chose Leo because he could do both – he could push the matter forward, but also take people with him.”
Leo is a "deeply calmer" person, Radcliffe said. “He is really a man who you feel that he is focused on God. He doesn't react from the hip, he listens and has a great ability to convey."