V.V. (19?) The "church key"

[Doug Millison]

An interesting choice of words by Pynchon. 

"Church key" is slang common to Pynchon's generation and it may even be
specific to the U.S. military or even more specifically the Navy. Perhaps
our ranking senior citizen, Mr. Mackin, can enlighten us; it would be at
home in the underworld/cop jargon of James Ellroy's novels set in the late
1940s-50s.  The word is probably not widely used now, given that the
ubiquity of pop-top cans have rendered the device's use superfluous.

"Church key' might reflect a rather irreverent attitude towards the church
on the part of the person who uses it, too, although given that wine is
traditionally the stand-in for Christ's blood in the Communion service (and
the belief by some scholars that this points back to the early use of
alcoholic beverages for their ecstasy-producing properties), the idiom may
point to a deeper folk understanding of religious experience and its
relationship to oblivion or bliss.

You might also say that Pynchon is saying that Paola holds the key to the
Church.

pix at:
http://pages.tias.com/56/InventoryPage/1970/1.html

http://ukar.org/01priest.shtml

http://www.just-for-openers.org/Church-Key.html
 
http://www.eastnorthumberland.com/news/newsAugust2000/ChurchKey08162000.html

"Paola, holding the church key, turned to gaze past Profane's left
    ear at what glittered in Stencil's hand." (416.4)