Pope Leo XIV meets Bob Dylan at Vatican

The meeting took place at the Apostolic Palace. Pope Leo presented Dylan with a rosary, while the singer gave the Pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. Dylan, 85, wore a black hooded sweatshirt during the brief encounter.

The musician is in Rome for a concert scheduled for Thursday, November 5, at the Palazzo dello Sport, as part of his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour. The autumn leg also includes performances in Milan and Bologna. The concerts are notable for a strict ban on recording with smartphones.

The meeting follows Pope Leo’s use of Dylan’s lyrics in July 2026. In the preface to Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, published by the Vatican Publishing House, the Pope quoted lines from “Go Away You Bomb,” a protest song Dylan wrote in 1963, to warn against global rearmament and the threat of nuclear weapons.

The song was never officially recorded or released on an album, and its original manuscript remained unpublished until it was discovered in 2013.

This was not Dylan’s first meeting with a pope. In 1997, he performed at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna before Pope John Paul II and an audience of about 300,000 young people. After performing three songs, including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Dylan approached the papal stage, shook hands with the pontiff, and exchanged a few brief words. 

During the event, John Paul II also quoted Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”: “You ask me: how many roads must a man walk down / before you can call him a man?”  The Pope answered: “Only one. There is only one road for man, and that is the road of Jesus Christ.” 

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Leo XIV had reportedly become the first pope to vote in an American election, and likely the first to vote in a democratic, secular election.