Even as a taditional Catholic I have always thought the supposedly hidden premise of the song was a lot of bunk. There is nothing in the song that so called non Catholic Chrstians would object to. So why would the meanings have to be hidden?
Lets say there were hidden Catholic meanings. Who would hold the catechism class to teach this to all the kiddies, and how would you keep this class a secret? Once the kids went to it the whole neighborhood would know about it.
And how would the author have spread the word about his intentions? Would he send a notice around to all the Catholics he knew? He may indeed have wrtten the song with those hidden inentions in mind, but he may even have been a protestant, because I'm sure even protestants appreciate a catchy jingle with a double entendre religious meaning.
Any set of numbers from 1-12 can be used to bring to mind almost any set of circumstances.
I think it was during the 50's or 60's Red Sovine had a popular song out about a deck of cards. It seems a soldier took out the deck during a wartime religious service and got in trouble for it until he explained the religious meaning of every card in the deck. He used it as his Bible. It's possible some person will find this song 500 years from now and attribute it to the oppression of the 60's and howChristians had to resort to a deck ofcards to pray in secret, and be glad they didn't live during those barbaric times.
There are threads around about "Deck of Cards". I believe it was written by T. 'Texas' Tyler, and I have the Wink Martindale version (I didn't know Red 'Teddy Bear' Sovine also recorded it). I googled it a while back; but haven't lately...