Recently the Catholic News Service gave The Golden Compass a good review, despite a Bill Donohue-concocted media slurricane about how the movie is anti-Catholic. The review specifically noted that the film has removed all of the Philip Pullman novel’s anti-religious content, and that it’s worthy on its own merits. Nonetheless, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which runs the news service, made the editor take the review down from its website. That URL now bounces to a (mildly defiant) press release about the removal.

Unfortunately for the bishops, and fortunately for anybody who values free thought, Google never forgets. The review is cached here. I particularly enjoyed the nut graf refuting Donohue’s nonsense:

Most moviegoers with no foreknowledge of the books or Pullman’s personal belief system will scarcely be aware of religious connotations, and can approach the movie as a pure fantasy-adventure. This is not the blatant real-world anti-Catholicism of, say, the recent “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” or “The Da Vinci Code.” Religious elements, as such, are practically nil.

Oh no! We can’t have that, can we? Sheesh. If Catholic bishops don’t want people to see this movie, they should harp on how cheesy the CGI looks (even in the promos), and how Nicole Kidman was apparently kept in a block of ice between takes.

The Church doesn’t have to dance to the tune of a fringe character like Bill Donohue just because he needs to squeeze his fat head in front of any TV camera that holds still long enough. I doubt Donohue has read the book. I doubt he’s read a book. And calling his group “the Catholic League” doesn’t give him authority over Catholics, any more than calling it “the Justice League” would give him abs and a discernible jawline.

Even if you think Philip Pullman is the Antichrist and nobody should ever see a movie with his name on it, shutting up anybody who’s not quite so sure sends the wrong message. There’s room for debate within the Church, isn’t there? This is 2007, not 1507.