Stephen Noon, the gay press secretary to British Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was apparently fired three years ago.  So that makes the story old news…right?

Well…not exactly…

The row is embarrassing for the Archbishop because, although Mr Noon was dismissed in 2003, details have emerged only days after Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor wrote in a letter to The Times: "The Church has consistently spoken out against any discrimination against homosexual persons, and will continue to do so." He was writing to counter suggestions that the deeply held Catholic faith of Ruth Kelly might be at odds with her new role as Equality Minister.

[Emphasis Mine…] Ruth Kelly is the Opus Dei operative Tony Blair has, for some godforsaken reason, decided to install in his cabinet as…get this…Equality Minister.  Not bad eh?  Sorta like making Al Capone Minister of Banks.

It’s important to remember the distinction here isn’t that she’s a Catholic, but that she’s Opus Dei.  There is no way on God’s green earth that a member of Opus Dei is going to work for gay and lesbian equality.  The opposition apparently tried to pin her down about the sinfulness of homosexuality last week, but that’s the wrong question to be asking her…

Ruth Kelly, the staunchly Catholic minister for equality, angered gay rights campaigners yesterday when she refused to say whether she regarded homosexuality as sinful.

Miss Kelly, who was given the job of promoting equality and fighting discrimination by Tony Blair in last week’s ministerial reshuffle, ducked the question twice in an interview on the BBC’s Radio Five Live.

Opposition politicians leapt on her evasive answers saying her appointment – she is also a member of the conservative sect Opus Dei which is hostile to homosexuality – raised serious questions about Mr Blair’s commitment to equality.

Asked by presenter Nicky Campbell if she thought homosexuality was a sin Miss Kelly said she was "not going to get into these questions".

When he pushed her a second time she said it was not right for ministers to make "moral judgments".

She insisted she was committed to equality and against discrimination of all kinds but would not be drawn on whether homosexual practices were acceptable.

There are many people of good conscience in this world, who understand that democracies have to treat all their citizens equally, without regard to their religious beliefs, even if what they do, the religions they practice, the lives they live, go against their own personal religious beliefs.  Rest assured, none of these folks belong to Opus Dei. 

You need to ask someone like Kelly what they think equality and discrimination Mean, as applied to the rights of homosexual people.  And you have to be precise, and you have to keep asking that question repeatedly until you get a precise answer back.  And it won’t be easy because an Opus Dei member will know by heart all the right weasel words to say and make you think that she means one thing, when in reality she means something completely different. It wasn’t that long ago here in America, that some people believed racial equality meant separate but equal, and being against discrimination meant treating all white people equally, and all black people equally, but not treating black people as the equals of white people. 

When Ruth Kelly says she is for equality for homosexuals and against discrimination, without a doubt she does not mean that you treat homosexuals as the equals of heterosexuals, or treat same sex couples as the equal of opposite sex couples.  She means, you treat all homosexuals equally…as God intended homosexuals should be treated, and not give preferences toward some homosexuals over other homosexuals.  But you don’t treat them as the equals of heterosexuals because they aren’t.  So treating them as equals would be silly.   As Rick Santorum once said, it would be like treating marriages the same as man on dog relationships.  Mercy and justice dictate that you treat all homosexuals equally, but not as the equals of heterosexuals.

It’s what they believe, but don’t expect them to say so until after they’ve gotten power.  In the struggle for the moral soul of the human race, honesty is only a conditional virtue.

Do I sound a tad too cynical?  Well…I’ve been in this fight since the early 1970s, and I know just how these people think, and how willing they are to look you in the eye and lie through their teeth in service to their gutter crawling prejudices.  Case in point, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who rushed to assure everyone regarding Ruth Kelly’s religious beliefs, that the Catholic church "has consistently spoken out against any discrimination against homosexual persons, and will continue to do so", three years after he’d personally fired a man from his staff simply because that man was a homosexual.