The Roman Catholic Church has forgiven the Beatles more than 40 years after John Lennon claimed the band were “more popular than Jesus”.

“After so many years it sounds merely like the boasting of an English working-class lad struggling to cope with unexpected success,” an editorial in today’s (November 22nd) edition of the Vatican’s official newspaper said.

L'Osservatore Romano, regarded as the Pope’s mouthpiece, praised the Beatles, saying the Liverpool band had provided the world with some of the “best pages in modern pop music”.

Lennon sparked outrage in 1966 when he told an Evening Standard journalist that “Christianity will go”.

"It will vanish and shrink. We're more popular than Jesus now - I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity,” he said.

“Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

At the time, Christians reacted with outrage, with some US based believers burning piles of Beatles records.

More than a decade later Lennon stood by his comment. “God bless America. Thank you, Jesus,” the musician said in response to the protests in the US.

(by Jason Gregory)