On This Day in 2010, Ringo Starr Shockingly Clapped Back at the Catholic Church’s “Forgiveness” of John Lennon

One of the most controversial moments of The Beatles’ career has to be when John Lennon said in an interview that the Fab Four were “bigger than Jesus” back in 1966. It was a huge debacle that angered a lot of conservative Christian Americans. It led to a pretty unpleasant North American tour for the band that year. Despite Lennon’s attempt to clarify his comments, the damage had already been done. Some concerts were full-on unsafe for The Beatles because of that statement being massively blown out of proportion. Just as well, the controversy was likely a contributing factor to the band calling it quits on touring later that year.

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Decades later in 2010, the Catholic Church officially published an article in its newspaper, the L’Osservatore Romano, written by Giuseppe Fiorentino and Gaetano Vallini. In the article, the Vatican declared that it had officially forgiven John Lennon for his remarks comparing The Beatles to Jesus.

Some saw the article as an agreeable farewell to the whole debacle that never really disappeared from the Fab Four’s legacy. However, Ringo Starr was not happy about the Catholic Church’s “forgiveness” of his late friend and bandmate.

Back in 2010, Ringo Starr Spurned the Catholic Church’s “Forgiveness” of the Late John Lennon

The article published by the Vatican admittedly included a few unpleasant and backhanded compliments directed at John Lennon and The Beatles as a whole. Specifically, ahead of their declaration of forgiveness, the Church wrote that “The Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages, that were possibly even Satanic… [but] what would pop music be like without The Beatles?”

On this day in 2010, one week after the Vatican released its statement, Ringo Starr decided to clap back.

“Didn’t the Vatican say we were Satanic or possibly Satanic?” said Starr in an interview with CNN. “And they’ve still forgiven us? I think the Vatican, they’ve got more to talk about than The Beatles.”

Regardless of your religious affiliation, it’s hard not to agree with Starr. The declaration of forgiveness could have been a genuine olive branch from the Vatican. But it also seemed a bit backhanded. It was a bit controversial, even, considering that John Lennon had been shot and killed 30 years prior by a man who was partly motivated by religious obsession.

Either way, the beef between John Lennon and the Catholic Church was effectively squashed.

Photo by Scott Robert Ritchie

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