15 Years Ago: The Vatican Forgives the Beatles

In March of 1966, a profile of John Lennon appeared in the London Evening Standard under the title How does a Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This.

Maureen Cleave, a British journalist who worked closely with the Beatles in those years, was then doing a series, interviewing each band member individually. In the piece about Lennon, she wrote about his home life with his wife Cynthia and son Julian, noting various eclectic possessions along the way — a room full of model racing cars, a gorilla suit and a fruit machine, to name a few.

But the profile would become famous for something that had nothing to do with Lennon’s collections. At one point in the article, the Beatle turned his attention to the subject of religion and told Cleave the following: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

When the article hit newsstands, this comment appeared not to bother British readers. Church attendance and belief in the U.K. then was in decline, giving way to secularism and other approaches to religious belief.

But several months later, Lennon’s words began being quoted in American publications, where the reaction could not have been more opposite. Some radio stations refused to play Beatles music, while demonstrations were held in more religious parts of the country where Beatles records and other memorabilia were not just gotten rid of but publicly burned. The controversy was so big it got all the way up to the Vatican itself. In the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, the church responded to the matter, saying “some subjects must not be dealt with profanely, even in the world of Beatniks.”

Lennon’s Apology

In August of 1966, Lennon tried to explain himself at a press conference held in Chicago. (The Beatles were then touring the U.S.)

“I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ or anti-religion,” he said. “I was not knocking it. I was not saying we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I happened to be talking to a friend and I used the word ‘Beatles’ as a remote thing – ‘Beatles’ like other people see us. I said they are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. I said it in that way, which was the wrong way.”

He also offered an apology of sorts.

“I’m sorry I said it – really,” he continued after a reporter pressed him. “I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don’t know quite what I’ve done. I’ve tried to tell you what I did do, but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then – OK, I’m sorry.”

The Vatican Finally Forgives

Some 40 years later, decades after the Beatles broke up as well as Lennon’s passing, the Vatican once again addressed the matter in L’Osservatore Romano.

“It’s true, they took drugs; swept up by their success, they lived dissolute and uninhibited lives,” the publication wrote in 2010 (via The New York Times). “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 editor-in-chief of L’Osservatore Romano, gave a further statement to The New York Times.

“In reality it wasn’t that scandalous,” he said, “because the fascination with Jesus was so great that it attracted these new heroes of the time.”

There was one person who took a bit of umbrage with the church’s message.

“Didn’t the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic — and they’ve still forgiven us?” Ringo Starr told CNN then. “I think the Vatican, they’ve got more to talk about than the Beatles.”