Vatican City, November 24: “Beatles are more famous than Jesus Christ”, John Lennon made this remark 40 years ago to a London newspaper that had enraged Christians across United States.
Infuriated people led a series of protests against Beatles by condemning them and burning heaps of their albums and posters. Now, 40 years later, finally the wrath of at least Roman Catholics has cooled down. The Vatican's official newspaper has pardoned Lennon, calling his remark a "boast" by a young man grappling with sudden fame.
That Vatican has forgiven Lennon is also apparent from how a Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, could not stop praising Beatles in a page long article marking 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "White Album". It said that the Beatles' songs had shown an extraordinary capacity for survival and the White Album remained a "magical musical anthology".
"The fact remains that 38 years after breaking up, the songs of the Lennon-McCartney brand have shown an extraordinary resistance to the passage of time, becoming a source of inspiration for more than one generation of pop musicians," the newspaper said. Accepting the charisma of Lennon’s music, it said, "The talent of Lennon and the other Beatles gave us some of the best pages in modern pop music."
The newspaper now seems to have accepted the fact that it must move ahead with the time and reflect the reality. Pope Paul VI staunchly criticized the pop culture, equating it with sin, during the heyday of Beatles. However, it is now gradually trying to reform its conservative image by allowing coverage of Oscars and other popular cultural events.
In March 1966, Lennon made his famous claim, “It (Christianity) will vanish and shrink. We're more popular than Jesus now - I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.” The fury had snowballed to such an extent that Beatles even received several death threats.
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