The new L’ Osservatore Romano

There has been a lot of chatter in the last year about the direction the L’ Osservatore Romano has taken.   First there was the story on President Obama saying there were no radical changes in his first 100 days and no mention of his rescinding the Mexico City Policy in his first week.  Subsequently there have been other articles that have drawn criticism.  A film review of Avatar brought lots of attention along with a congratulations to The Simpson’s on their 20th anniversary.

People are wondering what is the point of all of this in the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper?  Most of this is due to the confusion of the newspaper as being an official voice for the Vatican. The film reviews and The Simpson’s congrats don’t really bother me – but now they have gone too far by releasing a list of the top ten rock and pop albums of all time:

• The Beatles’ “Revolver”
• Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of The Moon”
• Oasis’ “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?”
• Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
• U2’s “Achtung Baby”
• Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”
• Donald Fagen’s “The Nightfly”
• Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural”
• Paul Simon’s “Graceland”
• David Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name.”

Now obviously this is a highly subjective list.  Though certainly the L’ Osservatore Romano does not have the charism of infallible pop picks.  I mean come on, U2’s Achtung Baby over Joshua Tree or The Beatles’ Revolver over Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band? Except for Pink Floyd’s album the other picks are questionable for my Desert Island album list.  But then again I am just a middle age head banger warped by the sixties on.

L’ Osservatore Romano really needs to write on the important things; like which is better Marvel or D.C. Comics? Better yet a papal encyclical on the subject.

Regardless I think people are going to be quite shocked at the new direction the L’ Osservatore Romano is taken.  In fact one of my readers from the Vatican City State leaked to me a cover from their next weekly issue.