Bob Dylan visits Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican

Dylan meets the pope at the Vatican

Bob Dylan visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday, November fourth, during a break between concert dates in Italy. The American singer-songwriter and poet met privately with the American pope.

The pope quoted Dylan's protest song

Pope Leo XIV had quoted Dylan's unpublished nineteen sixty-three protest song Go Away You Bomb in his twenty twenty-six book Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift. The lyric warned against nuclear weapons.

“I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled.”

They exchanged gifts during the meeting

The Vatican said the encounter was brief. Pope Leo XIV gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan presented the pope with a copy of his autobiography Chronicles: Volume One.

Dylan's spiritual connection to Augustine

Rev. Antonio Spadaro noted Dylan was familiar with St. Augustine of Hippo, the inspiration of Leo's spirituality. Dylan penned I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine for his nineteen sixty-seven album John Wesley Harding.

Dylan's history with papal audiences

Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in twenty sixteen, had performed for Pope John Paul II in nineteen ninety-seven during a concert in Bologna, Italy.He wore a black hoodie to Wednesday's Vatican meeting.

Dylan continues Italian tour after Vatican

Dylan played Milan on Monday and is scheduled to perform in Rome on Thursday. In his most recent concert before meeting the pope, he sang his nineteen ninety-seven song Tryin' to Get to Heaven.

“I've been all around the world, boys/Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door.”