The Vatican's newspaper has finally forgiven John Lennon for declaring that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, calling the remark a "boast" by a young man grappling with sudden fame.

The comment by Lennon to a London newspaper in 1966 infuriated Christians, particularly in the United States, some of whom burned Beatles' albums in huge pyres.

But time apparently heals all wounds.

"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," Vatican daily Osservatore Romano said.

The article, marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "The White Album", went on to praise the pop band.

"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," it said.

But Church historian and Catholic commentator Paul Collins says the opinions printed in the paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Pope.

"It is checked on by the Secretariat of State, I suppose we would call it censored by the Secretariat of State which is really the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet within the Vatican," he said.

"But while its articles on theology would certainly be taken as representing the Vatican's point of view, something like this John Lennon article sounds like a bit of a colour piece, as we would call it in Australia."

He says it would be a stretch to assume that the Pope has now forgiven Lennon for those controversial comments.

"I think Benedict the 16th would hardly know who John Lennon was," he said.

"I know that that might be surprising to many people, but the reality is that Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict the 16th - is a man whose entire interest is in classical music and more particularly in Mozart.

"So I think it is quite unlikely that he would be a keen listener to John Lennon and very unlikely that he would care very much about John Lennon at all."

Lennon was murdered in New York in 1980.

(Yahoo!/Agencies November 24, 2008)