A friend of mine sent me the following email: '.. in New York City, Mayor Koch tried something like this on the Catholic Church there. Cardinal O’Connor '...opposed Mayor Ed Koch’s executive order requiring all social service agencies, including those run by the Church, to provide equal services to homosexuals.' The cardinal refused on the grounds that it would make the Church appear to be sanctioning homosexual practices and lifestyle.” The Cardinal threatened to shut down Catholic hospitals in the city if the Mayor forced the issue. 'Early on in the AIDS epidemic, Cardinal O’Connor approved the opening of a specialized AIDS unit in St. Clare’s Hospital in Manhattan, the first of its kind in the state. He often nurtured and ministered to dying AIDS patients, many of whom were homosexual. Even though he refused to condone the actions of homosexuals (many of whom had invaded his St. Patrick’s Cathedral to angrily interrupt services), he would not allow his moral differences to interfere with ministering to them. As USA Today reported, he ‘washed the hair and emptied bedpans of dying AIDS patients, some too sick to know who he was.’ Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo once said of the archdiocese, ‘No place in the country are they working more aggressively to help AIDS patients than in the archdiocese.’” Yet O’Connor threatened to shut down these programs if Koch forced his hand. Koch backed down. . . . . .'