Bob Dylan met Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The brief audience took place during the stay in Italy of the 85-year-old American singer and songwriter, who is there on a concert tour.
The Pope gave the musician a rosary, while Dylan presented him with a copy of his autobiography “Chronicles: Volume One”. Dylan was accompanied at the meeting by Father Antonio Spadaro, a representative of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture, and Andrea Monda, editor-in-chief of “L’Osservatore Romano”.
According to Father Spadaro, Dylan himself had asked to speak with the Pope. The two held a private conversation that lasted several minutes. The Vatican press service described the meeting as brief and consisting mainly of greetings and an informal exchange.
Leo XIV’s interest in Dylan’s music was also prompted by a book on peace and disarmament published in 2026. In it, the Pope quotes the unreleased protest song “Get Out of Here, Bomb”, written by Dylan in 1963, at the height of the Cold War.
In the lyrics, the musician addresses a hypothetical atomic bomb with the words: “I hate you because you were made by man”. Leo XIV uses the song as a warning against a new arms race and the use of nuclear weapons. The song was never officially recorded or included on an album, and the original manuscript was discovered in 2013.
The two also share an interest in Saint Augustine, who influenced the Pope’s spirituality. Dylan dedicated to the saint the song “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”, included on his 1967 album “John Wesley Harding”.
This is not Bob Dylan’s first contact with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1997, he performed his songs for Pope John Paul II during the National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna. Around 300,000 people attended the event.
Dylan, whose birth name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, is the recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in Minnesota into a Jewish family, and in 1979 announced his conversion to Christianity. His religious explorations are also reflected in some of his music.
On November 5, Dylan will perform in Rome as part of his tour of Italy. His schedule also includes appearances in Milan and Bologna.