This week’s most entertaining religion story came out of the Vatican — a nice surprise, considering the significantly less pleasant headlines from there lately. In short, the Holy See’s official newspaper published a glowing tribute to The Beatles, on the 40th anniversary of the iconic group’s schism, forgiving the band for its excesses, including John Lennon’s infamous remark that they were “more popular than Jesus.”

Not everyone got a kick out of this, however: Ringo Starr responded that he thinks the Catholic Church has more important things to worry about these days, while the National Catholic Register’s Mark Shea blogged that this is both a non-story (backed up by GetReligion) and more evidence of an anti-Benedict media campaign.

So much for Fun Friday! Well, here’s an appropriate song for the occasion:

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