The Vatican appears to have forgiven The Beatles – and specifically John Lennon – for his comment 42 years ago that the band was “more popular than Jesus.”

The latest edition of L’Osservatore Romano praises the band’s White Album and puts Lennon’s comment down to the boasting of a working class English kid dealing with a rapid rise to fame. The official Vatican newspaper then goes on to praise The Beatles’ music and continuing pop influence.

There’s some talk that the Vatican’s engagement with popular culture issues like this is an effort to shake off a stuffy image but I think this change of heart has more to do with the fact they can safely forgive Lennon knowing that Google has proven him wrong.

Just look at the number of hits on Google when you do the relevant searches:

• The Beatles: 70.3 million
• Jesus: 209 million
• John Lennon: 16.1 million.

The Lennon case doesn’t hold up. The Google Standard clearly shows Jesus is more popular than The Beatles.

But the band can take some solace. The Beatles are roughly twice as popular as the Pope who only pulls in 37.8 million hits.