Bob Dylan met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Nov. 4, in a rare public appearance for the 85-year-old musician. Vatican News said the two exchanged greetings and a few lighthearted remarks during the brief meeting.
The Pope gave Dylan a rosary, while Dylan presented Leo with a copy of his autobiography, “Chronicles: Volume One.” Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who helped organize the encounter, described it on social media as an emotional meeting with a sense of history.
The meeting follows a reference to Dylan’s music in a book published by the Vatican Publishing House. In July, Leo quoted a line from Dylan’s 1963 song “Go Away You Bomb” in the preface to “Disarmed and Disarming: Peace is a Gift.”
Dylan also performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997 at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy. During an address at the event, John Paul quoted Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and connected its question about what makes someone a man to the path of Jesus Christ.
Sources: E! News.