While many people around the world continue to mourn the passing of Pope Francis, some have also recounted their memories of him on social media. Among them was Reverend Ian Anderson, a Unitarian Universalist Minister-in-training in Cleveland, Ohio, who shared to Reddit. When Ian and his now-wife Ash were sending out their wedding invitations in 2023, they had a few extras. They decided to send them to some of their favorite celebrities, among them Jack Black, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Judge Judy, and Pope Francis, Newsweek shares.
Ian told Newsweek, "It was really just for fun." As "two humble people from Cleveland," they didn’t expect a response from anyone, but they did write a nice letter to the Pope in particular. "The invite we sent him was slightly more formal than the others," Ian noted. "We included much more formal language, referred to him as 'His Holiness,' and said we wanted to extend this invite because he is someone we admired. We also asked him to please pray for us.” Their response came the following month, in June 2023.
Ian and Ash received a letter at his parents’ house from Monsignor Roberto Campisi at the Vatican, written on behalf of the Pope.
Anderson's photo of his letter written on the pope's behalf.Screenshot from Anderson posting as u/Misther__ on Reddit
“His Holiness Pope Francis has received your kind letter, and he has asked me to thank you.
His Holiness will pray for you and your fiancée on the happy occasion of your wedding. He invokes upon you God’s abundant blessings.”
At first Ian and Ash were surprised, especially since they learned about it at their niece’s t-ball game: “My dad came up to me all serious and confused, asking why I had a letter from the Vatican. The return address was my parents' house, and at first I forgot that we sent him a wedding invite, but then it hit me. I just thought, did we really get a letter from the Pope?"
In addition to Pope Francis, Anderson and his wife also invited Barack Obama to their wedding. obamawhitehouse.archives.gov
Indeed they did, and the letter is framed in their house to this day. Ian’s post about the letter has since gone viral, with over three million views on TikTok and 149K upvotes on Reddit.
Ian and Ash appreciated the Pope’s dedication to practicing what he preached: humility, kindness, and courteousness. This is something Ian preaches as well as a self-described “punk minister” who occasionally shares live services on TikTok and plays in metal bands. “We as humans have an abundance of thought, logic and opinions,” Anderson said. “I don’t care if you believe in a higher power, believe in none, or believe in many: the spiritual path you walk is worthy of dignity (so long as you are responsible with it) and has a place at the table of spiritual unity.”
Rev. Ian A introduces himself on TikTok.www.tiktok.com
In his final Easter address, one day before he passed, Pope Francis’s own messages of faith and humanity were similar: “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!" he said, as reported by ABC News.
Living amongst a multitude of ideas is what makes us human, whether you’re the Pope, a minister-in-training from Ohio, or somewhere in between. If we can do so with kindness, courtesy, and humility, too, all the better.
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You may have missed the actual meaning behind these 5 popular songs.
'Every breath you ...' what? 5 classic songs where people totally missed the meaning
I’ve never been a "lyrics guy"—as long as the words sound pleasing to the ear, are relatively interesting, and aren’t evil or distractingly dumb, I don’t care all that much what the singer is going on about. I’m focused on the dynamics, the color of the arrangements, the rhythms, and harmonies. It’s only natural that I’d misinterpret some songs over the years, including ones that I’ve heard a thousand times while walking around malls and supermarkets.
I know I’m not alone. And I’d argue there are plenty of factors behind this phenomenon: Some people take lyrics too literally, while others only focus on hooky choruses and fail to notice nuance in the verses. Context can also blind us—if the music is danceable and upbeat, you might fail to catch darker elements in the words. Still, it can be hilarious and/or shocking when hugely popular tunes are misinterpreted on a mass scale.
Speaking of which: Let’s consult a viral Reddit thread titled "Any songs that are (or were) misunderstood by the public?" There's a mountain of suggestions—everything from '90s Latin-pop hits to '80s heartland-rock epics. But five of them felt especially perfect, so let’s dig a little deeper below.
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The Police - "Every Breath You Take" (1983)
As someone argues in the comments, "Pointing out the real meaning behind 'Every Breath You Take' has to have become so commonplace that it can't really be misunderstood anymore." Point taken. But still…this eerie Police track continues to be used in pop culture and everyday life as a signifier of romance—appearing as the soundtrack to TV slow dances and being arranged for weddings by string quartets. It’s easy to assume, at first glance anyway, that the song's protagonist is pledging their devotion—sticking around for "every breath" their partner takes. Instead, the atmosphere is more disturbing, given the whole "I’ll be watching you" thing. "I didn't realize at the time [I wrote it] how sinister it is," Sting told The Independent in 1993. "I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance, and control."
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Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the U.S.A." (1984)
"Born in the U.S.A." is one of Bruce Springsteen's signature songs—but also likely his most misinterpreted. As an official explainer video notes, the words "center around America's industrial decline and loss of innocence during the Vietnam War"—a message that became somewhat diluted as politicians began using the stadium-sized track for their campaigns. "Conservative commenters praised the song, and it earned the approval of both candidates in the 1984 presidential election," the clip's narrator adds. "Despite being adopted as a patriotic anthem, 'Born in the U.S.A.' is far from nationalistic." In a deep-dive piece, NPR quotes Springsteen talking about the song on stage: "'After it came out, I read all over the place that nobody knew what it was about,' he said before performing 'Born in the U.S.A' to a crowd in 1995. 'I'm sure that everybody here tonight understood it."
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Los Del Rio - "Macarena" (Bayside Boys remix) (1995)
Most Americans probably know the bubbly Bayside Boys remix of Los Del Rio's Spanish-language hit—it became the marquee moment of many a mid-'90s wedding reception and middle-school dance, thanks to its once-ubiquitous choreography. Maybe it's because people were too distracted by remembering the dance moves, but lots of us didn’t notice the lyrics. Of course, the chorus is in Spanish, which could have been a barrier for some, but the remix features English lines like the following: "Now don't you worry about my boyfriend / The boy whose name is Vitorino / Ha! I don't want him, can't stand him / He was no good so I, ha ha ha / Now come on, what was I supposed to do? / He was out of town, and his two friends were so fine."
"My little teenage mind was blown when I learned 'Macarena' was about cheating on a boyfriend with his friends," one Redditor wrote. "[Thank you] for the correction, it was 2 friends! Was sleep deprived writing this. I just did the moves, never questioned the lyrics." Yeah, gotta admit—this legitimately never crossed my mind either. Same with some of the people who took part in a reaction video for Distracify: "It’s definitely about dancing," one person said, before learning the truth. Another added, "I have no idea what it’s about still to this day. Please tell me it’s not something really dark."
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Baha Men - "Who Let the Dogs Out" (2000)
The party was nice. The party was pumpin'.' Until, that is, some "flea-infested mongrels" got involved. Back in 2000, you couldn't escape Baha Men's booming cover of "Who Let the Dogs Out"—it became a staple of sporting events everywhere, a kind of bookend for the Jock Jams era. "I know I definitely misunderstood 'Who Let the Dogs Out' to be about actual dogs," one Redditor wrote, likely speaking for most of the listening public. There's probably a good chance most of those people chanting the chorus weren't thinking about the song's real meaning, crafted by Trinidadian artist Anslem Douglas for his 1998 original. But if you pay attention to the lyrics, "Who Let the Dogs Out" has a feminist theme, telling the story of women who stand up against crass catcalling. "This is going to be a revenge song where a woman tells men, 'Get away from me—you're a dog,'" Douglas told Vice in a 2021 video history of the track. "[Offensive] slang was everywhere. It was just degrading women and calling them all sorts of derogatory names. I tried to do a social commentary as a party song, but the party song overshadowed the social commentary aspect of it."
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Hozier - "Take Me to Church" (2013)
One section of the Reddit thread is devoted to songs interpreted as pro-religion, when the truth is... well, more complicated. "'Take Me to Church' by Hozier is often used by Churches for things, and I’m like 'Oh, that’s not…,'" wrote one user. The bluesy, slow-burning ballad may use religious imagery. Still, it's about something more human—"[It's] this idea that powerful organizations use people’s sexuality in order to mobilize people against women, against gay people," the Irish songwriter told Genius in 2023. "And the justification behind that is often religious in nature." Hozier even isolated one particular lyric that highlights this misconception: "'She tells me, ‘Worship in the bedroom' [is] something tongue-and-cheek, a bit of humor to it, also revealing that this is not necessarily a traditional worship song," he said. "I think I still see my name put into playlists for Christian music, and I’m not averse to that—I don’t think the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. But that line I would’ve thought would’ve disqualified it from something like that."