Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP / Getty Images
On Wednesday (November 4), Pope Leo XIV met with Bob Dylan at the Vatican during a private audience. The 85-year-old singer-songwriter, who is in Rome for a concert at the Palazzo dello Sport, had a brief meeting with the Pope, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges, as reported by Euronews.
Dylan, dressed in a black hoodie, gifted Pope Leo with a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One," while the Pope presented Dylan with a rosary. The meeting was described by Father Antonio Spadaro, who accompanied Dylan, as having "the flavour of history," according to Forward.
This encounter follows Pope Leo's reference to Dylan's unpublished protest song "Go Away You Bomb" in his 2025 book on global peace. The song, written in 1963, addresses the nuclear threat and was quoted by the Pope to warn against rearmament.
Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, is known for his songs associated with anti-war protests and civil rights. This is not his first papal meeting; he performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997 during a religious congress in Bologna.