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In exclusive statements to the outlet AdVaticanum, the British Dominican denies having taken part in that blessing and states that he was unaware it was going to take place.
The celebration, which InfoVaticana reported on this week, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the life together of Julian Filochowski and Martin Pendergast, two well-known activists in ministry with homosexual persons in the Archdiocese of Westminster.
At the conclusion of the Mass, the clergy present imparted a blessing using a text prepared for the couple, a gesture that raised questions due to its apparent incompatibility with the limits set by the declaration Fiducia supplicans, which expressly excludes ritualized blessings in a liturgical context for couples in irregular situations.
“I did not give a blessing to anyone and I did not know that any blessing was going to be imparted,” Radcliffe stated. The cardinal insisted that his participation was limited to preaching the homily and denied that he had intended to present the relationship of those being honored as an object of ecclesial celebration.
According to him, his reflection focused on Christian friendship. “I said that friendship is a participation in the life of God. That is perfectly orthodox. I was not referring specifically to theirs. The Mass was a celebration of all friendship,” he affirmed. He added that references to Filochowski and Pendergast were made only “in connection with their shared passion for justice,” for which, he said, both are known within the Church.
Defends that the event should have remained private
Radcliffe also maintained that the celebration had been conceived as a private event precisely to avoid misinterpretations.
“The guidelines given by the Church are that any occasion of this kind should be private so as not to cause misunderstandings. It was agreed that this celebration would be private. I do not know why that privacy was not respected,” he stated.
Along the same lines, he rejected the idea that the Mass could be interpreted as a celebration of a homosexual relationship. “It was not conceived to celebrate homosexual relationships as such. To present it that way would be to distort it. Doing so with the purpose of provoking scandal would be morally incorrect,” he added.
A public blessing during the Mass
However, images released by the organizers themselves show that, at the end of the celebration, a public blessing was imparted to the couple through a previously prepared text, inspired -according to the organizers — by a form approved by the bishops of Belgium.
In it, God’s grace was invoked upon both on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of their relationship and that their love might continue to grow.
The ceremony also included other elements that sparked controversy, among them the dialogued proclamation of the Gospel by several laypeople — including Sister Jeannine Gramick and theologian James Alison — and the distribution of the Most Precious Blood by one of those being honored during Communion.
Radcliffe’s statements constitute the cardinal’s first public explanation following the controversy generated by a celebration that, to date, has not prompted any official statement from either the Archdiocese of Westminster or the Holy See.