While the cat's away...

The cat being the proprietor of that other Pray Tell blog, who's gone wherever cats go for a month or so, leaving the shop in the hands of a trusted über-liturgist.  If you thought the rigid censorship that cat has made such a trademark of that platform might ease just a tad--as in Fidel to Raul--you'd be wrong. 

I offer two pieced of evidence:

Exhibit One, in response to a post titled At the Movies, which asked for examples of liturgy on the big screen, I politely offered not one but three such examples:

• Elvis in ‘Change of Habit’. This is actually before the Bugnini-Montini rite was imposed on us in a top-down manner, but shows how goofy the avant-garde was, even then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAaeJzRZ2tk
• Deanna Durbin in ‘Christmas Holiday’ (midnight Mass): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ1jIIl8IaY
• Jack Lemmon ‘Mass Appeal’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rB2SizYqM8 (what a cool, hip dude…funny thing is that the pews were actually full. How often do you see that in a NO mass?)

But mysteriously my post was sent into the Outer Darkness, as our Mormon friends call it (or is it the Mohammedans?--tough to tell them apart).  Or maybe not that mysterious:  Jack Lemmon, of course, was a Harvard alum, and it's no surprise that a blog that's not only ruthless in its intent to impose bad translations on us, but is also HQ'd in some snowy enclave near the Yukon territory, would possess an irrational animus against anything Ivy League.  Mystery solved:  don't mention Mr Lemmon or your post will never see the light of day (over there, that is.)

Interestingly, another commenter claimed to have played the naive if exuberant seminarian in that film.  Of course, on the internet, anyone can claim to be anyone, which is why there are so many dogs posing as humans.  But this commenter cleverly avoided mentioning Mr L, so the über-censor gave him (or it, if it was a dog) a pass. 

Exhibit Two, a commentor to a post titled Pope Warns Against Admitting Rigid, Fundamentalist Young Men into Seminary  wondered 'I wonder what Pope Francis would say about clerical bloggers?'  This was an obvious and, in my view, mean-spirited attack on our absent, censorious blogmeister, and I for one wan't going to have it.  So I responded, with righteous indignation:

 [The absent blogmeister] and I haven't always seen eye to eye, especially over matters like his desire to force people to attend the Novus Ordo, and to listen to the now defunct 1973 mis-translation of the same, but I feel compelled to stick up for him here, especially while he's on sabbatical and not around to defend himself. 

I don't know what Pope Francis would say about our friend 'awr'--you never know what Francis is going to say , which is why we call him 'The Pope of Surprises'--but I can tell you what I say.  Clerical blogger like [the Cat] have every right to voice their thoughts and opinions, and even when they're dead wrong I'll defend their right to do so.  Clerical bloggers have brought a lot of heat and light, in roughly equal measures, to both the critical issues of our faith and to its ephemeral minutiae.  Many of us have reaped the benefit of their wisdom, so why shouldn’t they blog and blog boldly?  And let’s face it, they have more time on their hands than those of us who have jobs and a family to support.

Amazingly, Raul binned this one too.  Or maybe not so amazingly, since I was arguing for free speech, even when that speech involves endless idolisation of Vatican II. 

But where there's censorship, intrigue is not far behind.  Could it be that the assistant cat has designs to take over the show?  Could it be that when Top Cat comes back he'll find the locks have been changed?  Never underestimate a Novus Ordinator.