Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican during Italian tour
Bob Dylan visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, exchanging a rosary and his autobiography, while the pope referenced an unpublished 1963 protest song in his recent book.
Bob Dylan met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday during a break between concert dates in Italy. The encounter, described by Vatican officials as brief, included the pope giving Dylan a rosary and Dylan presenting a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One.
"Leo quoted from an unpublished protest song Dylan wrote in 1963, 'Go Away You Bomb,' in his 2026 book Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, warning against nuclear rearmament," the Vatican noted.
Two Vatican representatives accompanied the singer: Rev. Antonio Spadaro of the culture ministry and Andrea Monda, editor of L'Osservatore Romano. Spadaro said Dylan had requested the private meeting and recalled Dylan's long-standing familiarity with the works of St. Augustine, which inspired the pope’s spirituality.
Dylan, a 2016 Nobel laureate in literature, arrived in a black hoodie and loose tie, with Vatican photographs showing the hood over his head. The meeting follows a previous papal audience in 1997 with Pope John Paul II and reflects Dylan’s ongoing, though private, engagement with religious themes.
The singer was in Milan on Monday and scheduled to perform in Rome on Thursday, having recently performed his 1997 song “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” in concert.