“In good Catholic eyes a person's sexual orientation does not matter” my arse

Vincent Nichols, the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, talking this week about advertising for condoms and abortions:

One of the things I regret is that too often in our society a person's whole identity is shaped by their sexuality, or by their sexual orientation. In good Catholic eyes a person's sexual orientation does not matter.

And yet:

Before new sexual orientation laws, guaranteeing equality in goods and services for the gay community were introduced in April 2007, Archbishop Nichols said the legislation contradicted the faith's "moral values". Speaking at a mass at St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, he said: "It is simply unacceptable to suggest that the resources of the faith communities ... can work in co-operation with public authorities only if the faith communities accept not simply a legal framework, but also the moral standards at present being touted by government."
He failed in his attempts to get the Catholic adoption agencies exempted from sexual orientation regulations, which forced them to consider gay couples as parents.

By pure chance, yesterday I was watching the Father Ted episode ‘A Song for Europe’, in which Ted and Dougal get picked as Ireland’s entry in the Eurosong Competition:

Charles Hedges, the producer of the show talks to Ted in their dressing room. Ted mistakes the show’s host as being Charles professional partner…
Charles: No, he’s my lover
Ted: (dumbfounded) … he’s, he’s quite a catch! This is my partner, Father Dougal McGuire – not my sexual partner! I mean my partner that I do the song with.
Charles: Yes, I guessed that
Ted: Of course you did – not that there’s anything wrong with that type of thing
Charles: I thought the Catholic Church thought that type of thing was inherently wrong
Ted: Yes, it does. The whole ‘gay’ thing. I suppose it’s a bit of a puzzle to us all. It must be fun though – not the… you know, but the night clubs and the whole rough and tumble of homosexual activity. You know, having boyfriends when you’re a man! Anyway, don’t mind what the church thinks – it used to think the Earth was flat! You know, sometimes the Pope says things he doesn’t really mean. We all get things wrong – even the Pope.
Charles: What about Papal infallibility?
Ted: Yes… Is it for everything? The infallibility, do you know?
Charles: I don’t know
Ted: Right, anyhow, nothing to do with me…

And, in other news, ‘Panicked, Sweat-Covered Pope Reverses Longstanding Ban On Abortion’.