It took three years for comedians and Catholics to find a mutually agreeable way to rename part of a Manhattan street after George Carlin, the merrily vulgar comic who made religion a frequent target of his acerbic monologues.

A bill signed into law on Wednesday finally declared that a two-block stretch of West 121st Street was named George Carlin Way. But it was supposed to be only one block — and not the one once home to Mr. Carlin, and still home to the Corpus Christi Church. Priests there opposed the plan for years, calling Mr. Carlin, who died in 2008, unworthy of the honor.

Yet in an irony of Carlinesque proportions, a clerical error means that Mr. Carlin’s childhood church will indeed reside on a block ceremonially named for the comic who relentlessly skewered it.

Image Priests said Mr. Carlin, who died in 2008, was unworthy of the honor. Credit... David G. Massey/The Lima News, via Associated Press

It will only be temporary. All sides describe the mix-up as a simple mistake, to be amended in the fall, when the City Council votes on another batch of street renamings. And church officials have been assured that a street sign bearing Mr. Carlin’s name will not be posted until the problem is sorted out.