John Lennon Finally Forgiven for "Christ" Statement

In 1966 Lennon told a London paper that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ. While thicker-skinned people might have shrugged it off as a boast by someone who only relatively recently became one of the most famous people in the world, the Vatican took offense.

No longer.

Vatican daily Osservatore Romano said:

"The remark by John Lennon, which triggered deep indignation mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll.

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."

Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman in 1980.