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Arts and Culture

The Vatican Now Officially Approves of the Beatles

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Posted on Apr 12, 2010
Beatles
AP

The Beatles wave after arriving at the San Francisco airport on Aug. 18, 1964.

The Vatican continues to be rocked by a wide-ranging sex abuse scandal, and the pressure it’s under could have something to do with its newly revised opinion of The Beatles. Although the Holy See’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, pointed to the potentially Satanic content of the Brit band’s music, as well as the group’s bigger-than-Jesus grandstanding, the paper ultimately gave the Beatles its blessing.  —KA

Update: Surviving Beatle Ringo Starr wasn’t exactly jumping up and down about the Vatican’s change of heart, judging by his reaction in this interview.

Daily Mail:

Absolving the British group of their excesses involving ‘drugs and blasphemy’, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano hailed them as a ‘precious jewel’.

[...] The decision to heap praise on the group in the middle of a series of sex-abuse scandals raised eyebrows among commentators.

One said: ‘With all that is going on within the Church, to write about The Beatles instead of focusing on the scandal of abusive clergy does seem rather odd.’

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alyceobvious's avatar

By alyceobvious, April 15, 2010 at 1:08 pm Link to this comment

it took them hundreds of years longer to forgive galileo. i suppose they figure pardoning the beatles is worth at least a few hail mary’s?

for some casual, non-denominational banter on the subject of the holy see’s current predicament, please come join us over at “the pope is toast” group on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/the-pope-is-toast/107399865961060?ref=ts

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By Maani, April 14, 2010 at 8:31 pm Link to this comment

Michael:  ROFLMAO!!

Jimnp72: “Did Jesus wear fancy robes and headgear?”

Not only did He NOT do so, but He did not even SUGGEST (much less demand) the creation of an organized, hierarchical “religion” built around Him, much less all the “trappings” of that religion (costumes, rituals, even “physical” churches).

—-

Ringo is right to react with mocking humor.  One can only…imagine what Lennon would say!!

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By omygodnotagain, April 14, 2010 at 1:39 pm Link to this comment

odeilehanne
good point but these Priest child abuse cases happened years ago, they are happening now in schools, detention centers and can be stopped. You cannot change the past

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By ofersince72, April 14, 2010 at 12:24 pm Link to this comment

“All We Are Saying, is Give PEACE A CHANCE” !!!!

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By melpol, April 14, 2010 at 6:00 am Link to this comment

Effeminate altar boys who can be substituted for girls are often sodomized by
heterosexual priests who find it difficult to form a secretive relationship with an
adult female.  Effeminate boys mixed in with an adult prison population would
also be abused. The French Foreign Legion was famous for sexually abusing their
water boys. It is true that a few homosexuals priests share the guilt, but most
have enough sexual contact with adults.

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By Sandra, April 14, 2010 at 3:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Personally, I think the Beatles taught us more important things like “Give Peace a Chance”, “Imagine” (John), etc. than what the Vatican represents:  murders of millions of people to FORCE them to LOVE Jesus!  Think about it…is that the kind of organization you want to be affiliated with?  How ironic the Vatican “approves” of the Beatles.  The murderer approves of the dove, as if the dove needs the murderer’s approval…

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By melvin polatnick, April 14, 2010 at 3:06 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Effeminate altar boys who can be substituted for girls are often sodomized by heterosexual priests who find it difficult to form a secretive relationship with an adult female.  Effeminate boys mixed in with an adult prison population would also be abused. The French Foreign Legion was famous for sexually abusing their water boys. It is true that a few homosexuals priests share the guilt, but most have enough sexual contact with adults.

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By Jimnp72, April 13, 2010 at 5:40 pm Link to this comment

I find it irritating that they feel the need to wear such fancy and elaborate
costumes. The pope looks ancient as hell and burdened down considerably by his.
Did Jesus wear fancy robes and headgear?
Does this add their credibility or holiness somehow?
Not.

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By omygodnotagain, April 13, 2010 at 3:50 pm Link to this comment

The child abuse scandal has been blown up by the media in Anglo countries (it doesn’t play in the Spanish media). If they were really interested in child abuse they would be looking at Public School where gangs molest girls and teachers cower in fear, and juvenile detention centers where teenage girls are serially raped. Maybe the Vatican newspaper is sending a message of Help the real victims who were abused as you read this

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By Michael, April 12, 2010 at 8:00 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The Beatles are still Relevant, the Catholic church…..... not so much!

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By Shaun G, April 12, 2010 at 2:28 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

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.)

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By diman, April 12, 2010 at 2:14 pm Link to this comment

Are they out of their fucking minds out there in Vatican? I mean really, amidst the shitstorm, this is what really important now? Don’t think The Beatles would give a shit anyway.

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