Springsteen and the Vatican?

Sometimes news takes a detour. I usually get my news through Backstreets, so I only noticed this today on the Dutch fan site BeTrue. According to them the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican news paper, published an article on Springsteen and the Christian merits of his lyrics. According to BeTrue the Osservatore Romano was uncharacteristically praisingly in discussing Springsteen's work. Something they rarely do for popular artists. Quotes taken by BeTrue from the article are "Springsteen's lyrics show a literary depth" and "show a constant sensibility to catholic core values". According to the Osservatore Romano "The Catholic background of the singer songwriter rings out through his entire body of work...., in a sense Springsteen is predestined to be Catholic". According to BeTrue the article was published by the Osservatore Romano on March second. I checked their site but unfortunately couldn't find a digital reference to the article BeTrue is referring to. Since the site looks hopelessly outdated, I wouldn't be surprised if not everything gets published digitally.

I haven’t had the pleasure to read the article yet, and I’m not sure if it is even available in English. The Source at BeTrue doesn’t really say. It does mention though that Leonardo Colombati new book “Come Un Killer Soto Il Sole” is what prompted the Vatican press to write about the boy who used to piss in his desk at his local catholic school, or at least so the legend goes. The book is apparently an Italian biography, not available in English. Springsteen is popular enough in Italy to get a native language biography, only a year ago he sold out 7 Seeger Sessions shows, where as Americans seemingly couldn’t be dragged to the Arenas. The Seeger Sessions itself was filled with Catholic imagery and Gospel, so much so that Christian Music Today called it Springsteen’s most Christian album to date. So who knows maybe that’s what got the Vatican paying attention. The tour got nation wide broadcasting over the Radio in Italy (download here), so maybe some R&R minded Bishop took notice on his break from daily prayer and contemplation. Though Springsteen views himself as a fallen Catholic at best, spin “Promised Land” once more and the affectionate words from the Vatican are easily understood. That song alone makes it easy to turn a blind aye to all those nuns pleadin' immaculate conception.

We’ll keep you updated if we find out more or get our hands on a translation.

This was contributed by SoulBoogieAlex - check his blog here.