Someone just received a digitally remastered “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” for Easter! The Vatican has finally made peace with the Beatles, 40 years after the band’s breakup. A tribute in Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano cited drug use, “dissolute and uninhibited lives,” and John Lennon’s 1966 comment that the group was more famous than Jesus as things which had previously offended the Vatican.
Image Credit: Popperfoto/Getty ImagesBut now! “Listening to their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless,” L’Osservatore said. “Their beautiful melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions, live on like precious jewels.” Oh, like hidden gems? I’m familiar with those. Still, the Abbey Road cover had a crosswalk on it.
I can’t believe the Vatican relented. God.
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
They’ve forgiven much, much worse things than drug use and hubris, so I’m not particularly surprised.
Hallelujah! I can know listen to the Beatles without saying five Hail Mary’s…
Doesn’t the Vatican have bigger issues than the Beatles right now? Why don’t they try finding all the priests that either abused children or hid/moved abusing priests and ex-communicate them. Then inform the local authorities in all of those dioceses so that if their local laws still allow, those priests can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for either abusing the children or enabling the continued abuse of children!
seriously
I’m pretty sure this makes up for that.
that was just in a magazine, do u really think they arent doing something about that?
Well, they’ve been avoiding doing something for years. What’s changed?
I’m sure Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have been anxiously awaiting this moment! Or… not. Please. They did just fine, even with the Vatican condemning their music. I agree with Little Lady; there were previously and are currently such larger issues than this out there.
Can I use this as an excuse to play all my Beatles albums? Not that I really need an excuse, but still.
And you just use every opportunity to mention DWTS, don’t you Annie?
Every couple of months, you’ll see a headline like “Vatican says ‘The Simpsons’ are okely dokely” or “Vatican makes peace with Beatles after 40 years” (the latter was published today).
Now, you may be wondering, with all of the much more important things the Vatican has got going on nowadays, what is it doing making pronouncements about “The Simpsons” or The Beatles?
Well, it’s not.
Rather, it’s L’Osservatore Romano, a newspaper that is published by the Vatican, but does not necessarily represent the Vatican in any official capacity.
To quote the folks at GetReligion.org (http://www.getreligion.org/?p=20503) …
“All together now, religion-beat pros (and fans), let’s chant this together: L’Osservatore Romano does not equal the Vatican.”
When people read “The Vatican” in a headline, they think that it is Pope Benedict or some other Church official who is making the pronouncement.
But L’Osservatore Romano is simply the Vatican’s version of a diocesan newspaper.
For any news report to equate L’Osservatore Romano with “the Vatican” is absolutely misleading.
(That said, I really hope that the Vatican tells L’Osservatore Romano to knock it off with the cutesy pop culture articles. Clearly, they should know by now that whatever they write is going to be reported as if it came out of the mouth of Pope Benedict himself.)
Don’t care… the church is still lame. All hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster in all His glory!!!
Good to know their minds are on the right subjects. Not like there’s anything else more important than the offensive-ness of the Beatles.
It wasn’t really hubris. It was a joke on John’s part.
Now if people will forgive the Vatican for the sex abuse scandal.
jeez, forgiven by protectors of pedophiles…what an honor. perhaps it never occurs to religious hypocrites that their behavior is the main reason why The Beatles were(and arguably still are) more popular than Jesus.
For all of you that say the Vatican should be trying to fix the sex scandal problems: you need to realize that it is not really the Vatican’s job to fix those problems. it is the job of the bishop or cardinal of that dioceses to fix the scandal because it was a priest that was caught up in this mess, not the cardinal or bishop. if it was the cardinal/bishop, then it would be Pope Benedict’s job to fix the problem, but it is just a priest. And considering that this alleged scandal happened a couple years ago, it is possible that the girls could be lying. if someone attacks you, you don’t tell the media a few years later, you tell them as soon as it happens. we don’t need some more stupid girls doing the whole Salem Witch trials thing again. we all know how wonderful that turned out! The Vatican deals with issues that concern the world, not issues that could be fixed by the local bishop!
Too bad some of the local bishops also seem to have been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar.
Does anyone even care what these bozos at the Vatican have to say about anything anymore? They lost any credibility they had years ago when it came out they were helping to cover up the sexual abuse of children.
pedophilia in the Catholic priesthood is not a recent problem but has been happening for generations, if not centuries. the unwritten policy is to just move the priest to another location after “counselling”. no attempt to turn the pedophile over to authorities has ever been advocated. other religions such as JWs have similar problems. such institutions are more concerned with the reputations of their corporate entities than their children. the children themselves are often blamed.
all the while condemning other for “sins” such as birth control or the music they like.
The Beatles AND Galileo in the same century? Way to be progressive, Vatican.
Actually, not quite. The Galileo thing was in 1992 … last century
Why the Vatican felt the need to make a public announcement like this is beyond me. After all, it wasn’t merely the Catholic Church that Lennon insulted with his ridiculous comment re: we’re bigger than Jesus Christ and that Rock music would outlive Christianity. A number of Protestant denominations made statements against the Beatles as well. Way I see it, the Beatles were and are overrated. I guess Lennon was proved wrong because rock music is still around AND so is Christianity. In fact, there’s even Christian rock music.
Sorry, Girl, but “Christian rock music” is somewhat of an oxymoronic term. Just change any love song’s use of the word “baby” to “Jebus” and you have “Christian rock music.”