From L'Osservatore Romano: "This afternoon, Wednesday, November 4, Pope Leo XIV received Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan, in a private audience. Thanks to Antonio Spadaro for making this meeting possible."
Weird, Bob looks like he is dressed as supreme chancellor Palpatine. Imagine meeting the Pope looking like this? Is he sick where he has to cover his head?
From Vatican News: Pope Leo receives Bob Dylan at the Vatican The renowned American singer-songwriter and poet—a Nobel laureate in literature, currently touring Italy with a stop in Rome—was received this afternoon at the Apostolic Palace by Leo XIV. The Pontiff had previously quoted his lyrics in the preface to a book on disarmament. By Salvatore Cernuzio He had quoted him in July 2026, when—in the preface to a book published by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) titled Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift—he used words from one of his poetic compositions (figuratively addressed to the atomic bomb) to issue a stern warning against global rearmament and the nightmare of nuclear weapons: “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an’ man-handled”. Today in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo XIV met in person with Robert Allen Zimmerman, known as Bob Dylan. The 85-year-old American singer-songwriter and poet, a Nobel Prize laureate in literature, is currently in Rome. Tomorrow, Thursday, November 5, he will perform at the Palazzo dello Sport as part of the autumn leg of his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour—a concert series that also includes stops in Milan and Bologna, and is notable for its strict prohibition on smartphone recording. The meeting between Pope Leo and Dylan—who wore a black hooded sweatshirt—was brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges. The Holy Father presented the singer with a rosary, while Dylan reciprocated with a book: Chronicles: Volume One, his autobiography, which has been published in the United States and other countries around the world. Pope Leo XIV and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan (VATICAN MEDIA) Quoting a Nobel laureate The verses cited by the Pope in the book published by LEV, edited by journalist Alessandro Banfi, come from “Go Away You Bomb,” a protest song written by the artist in 1963, at the height of Cold War tensions. It is a unique piece, given that the song was never officially recorded or released on any music album, and the original manuscript remained unpublished until its discovery in 2013. A performance before John Paul II This is not the first time that the “minstrel” of rock—a nickname he has held since the beginning of his career in the 1960s—has met a Pope. In 1997, Dylan was invited to perform alongside other artists at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, before the Pope—then John Paul II—and a crowd of approximately 300,000 young people. The collective memory retains the image of the singer who, after performing three of his great classics—including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”—removed his cowboy hat, climbed the steps to the papal stage, and exchanged a handshake and a few brief words with Pope John Paul. In his address to the young people at the event, the Pope explicitly quoted the lyrics to “Blowin’ in the Wind”: “You ask me: how many roads must a man walk down / before you can call him a man?” The Polish Pope answered this question by saying: “Only one. There is only one road for man, and that is the road of Jesus Christ.”
Dylan gave the Pope a signed copy of his ‘biography’ (not a literalist tome!). He received, in turn, a Rosary beads. Dylan converted from Judaism (an extremely difficult thing to do, in terms of the religion itself, your Jewish family, friends and professional colleagues) in 1979, into a Pentecostalist sect, but one in which Dylan could express his favouritism for the writings of his beloved St John, particularly John’s Gospel and his Apocalypse. Bear in mind the efforts of so many Jews to tarnish (and ban) the writings of St John, the Jew, as ‘antisemitic’. From what I can make of his song lyrics (surely his greatest communication to us), he has come increasingly to a religious position very close to either Catholicism or Orthodoxy (he has written, in song, of his devotion to Our Lady-never directly or bluntly, of course; this is Dylan, after all). Given that he is now ‘on’ his second Pope, I’d be inclined to back him for Catholicism (supported by the evidence of his pre-conversion 1974 song ‘Shelter From The Storm’-‘when God and Her were born’). I’ve read a few comments on the event by Dylan fans and it’s noticeable that many are quite respectful (apart from the very few self-professed atheists-there’s no way they won’t let you know). All of these people, Catholic, Protestant and respectful other, regard Pope Leo as the Pope, in the sense of the Office, and know nothing of the questions we are aware of. Perhaps, this genuine innocence is for the best.
