ROME (JTA) – An Italian cardinal has startled the Roman Catholic – and probably the rock music – world by tweeting a tribute to the iconic Jewish-born singer Lou Reed.

Reed died Sunday at the age of 71 of complications following a liver transplant.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister, on Monday tweeted out a verse from Reed’s song “Perfect Day.” On his Twitter account @CardRavasi he wrote “Oh, it’s such a perfect day/ I’m glad I spend it with you/ Oh, such a perfect day/ You just keep me hanging on (Lou Reed)”.

On the face of it the lyrics refer to a love story, but the “you” in the song also has been interpreted as being heroin – as was pointed in out some of the replies to the cardinal’s tweet.

In his following tweet, Ravasi also mentioned Reed and clarified that he didn’t condone drugs. He warned against “illusions” and quoted the Bible verse about reaping what you sow, noting that Reed himself had used that line in “Perfect Day.”

Ravasi’s tweet before his Lou Reed tribute also quoted a Jewish cultural figure – the Israeli writer Amos Oz. He tweeted: “I never saw a religious fanatic with a sense of humor. Nor a person with a sense of humor becoming a fanatic. (Amos Oz)”