Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican
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Bob Dylan, 85, was received by Pope Leo XIV in the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday afternoon. The Pope gave him a rosary, and Dylan gave the Pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles - Volume 1.
Singer-songwriter and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, 85, met Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday afternoon in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican. Father Antonio Spadaro accompanied him, together with Andrea Monda, editor of L'Osservatore Romano. Spadaro described the meeting on social media and posted two photographs of the singer next to the Pope, writing that it had "the flavour of history."
The audience was brief, with greetings and a few exchanges. Leo XIV gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan responded with a copy of Chronicles - Volume 1, his autobiography. Dylan was in Rome on his tour and is due to perform at the Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday evening. He wore a black sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head.
The meeting has links to earlier events. Last July the Pope quoted Dylan's 1963 protest lyric Go Away You Bomb in the preface to a Vatican publishing house book on peace, using it to warn against rearmament and the risk of nuclear escalation. Dylan has also appeared before a Pope before: in 1997 he performed in Bologna in front of John Paul II and about 300,000 young people, including Knockin' on Heaven's Door.
The article also notes Dylan's Christian turn in the late 1970s, reflected in the albums Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love. It says Leo XIV has repeatedly emphasised the spiritual power of music during his first year as Pope.
