By Islam El-Sakka
Bob Dylan visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday during a break between concert dates in Italy. The brief encounter included an exchange of gifts: the pope gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan presented a copy of his autobiography "Chronicles: Volume One."
Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a culture ministry official, and Andrea Monda, editor of L’Osservatore Romano. Spadaro said Dylan requested the meeting, and the two spoke privately for a few minutes.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, has previously referenced Dylan’s work. In his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift," Leo quoted from Dylan’s unpublished 1963 protest song "Go Away You Bomb" to warn against nuclear rearmament.
Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, wore a black hoodie and loose tie for the meeting. Born Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota, he became a born-again Christian in 1979 but has been more circumspect about his faith in recent years, describing himself as a "religious person" who reads scriptures and prays.
This was not Dylan’s first papal audience; he performed for Pope John Paul II in Bologna in 1997. The Vatican meeting occurred between concerts in Milan on Monday and Rome on Thursday. At his Milan show, Dylan sang "Tryin’ to Get to Heaven," with its lyric about reaching heaven before the door closes.
