Ringo Starr rebuffs praise from Vatican

BY DAVID V BARRETT
RINGO STARR has brushed off the Vatican newspaper’s praise of the Beatles on the 40th anniversary of the band’s break-up.
In a column in L’Osservatore Romano Giuseppe Fiorentino and Gaetano Vallini wrote that the value of the Beatles’ “musical inheritance” is “inestimable” and paid tribute to their “magical creative alchemy”. But while they dismissed the band’s lifestyles, they called their music “a precious jewel”. But the 69-year-old drum mer, who released his 15th solo album earlier this year, told CNN: “Didn’t the Vatican say we were satanic or pos sibly satanic – and they’ve still for given us?” In a possible reference to the sex abuse scandals he added: “I think the Vatican, they’ve got more to talk about than the Beatles.”