The great saint Pope Francis has just invited the great punk singer Patti Smith to perform at the Vatican Christmas Concert!!! Here are some links:
This is really remarkable and wonderful.
I've been following Patti Smith for more than 40 years! She's about the all-time favorite of one of my oldest friends. I myself was always ambivalent, because some of her lyrics are openly anti-Christian.
Obviously this great pope sees deeper than I did years ago. He sees life! Look at one of the recent photos in one of those links above, where the two of them are glowing at each other. Patti is not a Catholic, but she loves this pope.
My old friend and some other friends and my wife saw Patti about a year ago in the D.C. area, opening for Neil Young. She was wonderful, but of course I like Neil a lot more.
This is just so cool.
Catholic conservative groups have their heads EXPLODING over this! It's time they heard something from the Jesus side of scripture!
I hope the concert will be live-blogged. I'm hoping she'll do "Smells Like Teen Spirit" very loud. But she'll probably do "Because The Night" very loud--and that would also be great! And since she's a very serious and respectful artist, she'll probably do something completely unexpected!
What would you prefer to have her play. She isn't going to insult the pope at the Vatican. What is her best play book?
By the way, I have serious health problems, but I'm so glad to be alive! Life continues to be full of amazing developments like this.