"Showing off, bragging by a young English working-class musician who had grown up in the age of Elvis Presley and rock and roll...."

The Vatican's semi-official newspaper forgives John Lennon for saying he was bigger than Jesus.

Although Pope Benedict has criticised many aspects of modern pop culture, he now allows the newspaper of the tiny independent Vatican state to reflect the reality of the world outside in a way that would have been unthinkable in the days of Pope Paul VI who reigned during heyday of The Beatles.