The Archdiocese of Boston, under attack by anonymous conservative Catholic bloggers, has blocked access to one of the websites from computers within the church’s Braintree headquarters.

Terrence C. Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said church officials blocked the site because it had become a distraction, not out of a desire to squelch debate. Its authors, he said, were “actively spamming the employees of the archdiocese with links to the site, interfering with their work day.’’ He pointed out that employees could still visit it from their home computers.

The Boston Catholic Insider, the most lively of several blogs that have targeted the archdiocese, portrays Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley as a lax administrator and accuses his top aides of straying from Catholic doctrine and values.

Personally, I think the Catholic bloggers of Boston should look around and realize that many dioceses (Rochester, Albany, Miami, etc. . . ) have it much worse than they do. Cardinal O’Malley wears his Franciscan habit in public . . . when was the last time you saw one of our religious/administrators wearing a habit in public, let alone own and posses one? But that’s beside the point. What I’d like to say is that this really highlights the trend of higher-ups who stray from Catholic teaching. (I’m not referencing O’Malley, but some of those under him.) When they are confronted (like our Theology on Tap series shows) they become bitter, evasive, and downright rude. And after they realize that those “conservatives” can’t be silenced, they enact their fascist decrees of censorship. The only equivalents I can think of here are the following:

• Ray Grosswirth doesn’t permit commentors to post on his blog.
• The Catholic Courier deletes comments (sometimes) which call out various people on various teachings.
• The Diocese of Rochester’s Facebook page has removed comments from our staffers and supporters.

I’d like to take this time to remind you that, unlike the Diocese of Rochester, we here at Cleansing Fire are not the thought-police. Liturgy Police, naturally, but not thought-police. We have limits, you know.