The music of the Beatles
(pictured in 1963), is like 'a precious jewel', says the Vatican
The Vatican tends to move a little bit behind the
times. It was nearly 360 years after Gallileo was put on trial for
heresy that the Church finally conceded it had been wrong to dismiss his
contention that the Earth rotated around the Sun. And so yesterday's
news that the Holy See had finally come round to The Beatles, a mere 45
years after first finding itself at odds with the Fab Four, was, if
anything, ahead of schedule.
But demonstrating the same gracious streak that
allowed it to overcome its tiff with the father of modern astronomy, the
Vatican, which is embroiled in a clerical paedophile scandal of seismic
proportions, has declared the band members' "dissolute" lives – and, of
course, John Lennon's immodest claim that by 1966 the Liverpool beat
combo was "bigger than Jesus" – lay in the past, "while their music
lives on".
Fulsome tributes to the Fab Four
appeared in two articles in its L'Osservatore Romano newspaper together
with a front-page cartoon reproducing the zebra crossing walk
immortalised on the cover of the band's album Abbey Road.
"It's true, they took drugs; swept up by their
success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives," said the paper.
"They even said they were more famous than Jesus. But, listening to
their songs, all of this seems distant and meaningless. Their beautiful
melodies, which changed forever pop music and still give us emotions,
live on like precious jewels."
Giovanni Maria
Vian, the paper's editor-in-chief, said yesterday that John Lennon's
controversial remark demonstrated how even celebrities were fascinated
by Jesus, and wasn't as scandalous as some people had made out.
There had been previous signs that the Catholic Church
was edging towards a reconciliation with popular culture's most
enduring icons.In a move that some saw as a conscious attempt to broaden
its appeal to people below the age of 60, a couple of years ago it
praised The Beatles' White Album.
Then in
February this year the Vatican paper included Revolver in its
"semi-serious" list of top 10 albums, along with three other acts not
entirely untouched by suggestions of either sexual scandal, drug use or
rock'n'roll debauchery by listing Michael Jackson's Thriller, Pink
Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, and (What's the Story) Morning Glory
by Oasis.
And if the Church has made its step
towards The Beatles, one of the surviving members of the band has made a
move in the opposite direction. Earlier this year, Ringo Starr declared
that God was now "in his life".
* Catholic
priests suspected of abusing children should "always" be reported to the
police and face justice in the courts, the Vatican has said.
In an attempt to show that the Holy See is striving to
respond to the worldwide sex abuse crisis rocking the Catholic Church,
the Vatican published on its website its guidelines for handling
predator priests.
The short set of rules,
published in English, is an attempt to satisfy critics who have accused
the Church of covering up some of the dozens of abuse cases that have
come to light in the US and Europe in recent months.