Μake us preferred on Google Bob Dylan’s songs have found an audience in the Vatican before. On Wednesday, that connection took a personal turn when the legendary American musician met Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace in Rome.
The visit brought together two figures from the American Midwest, with the Chicago-born pontiff receiving the 85-year-old singer-songwriter at his official residence. According to Vatican News, the encounter was short, but the pair exchanged gifts. Leo gave Dylan a rosary, while the musician presented the pope with his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One.
The meeting took place during Dylan’s Italian tour, which was due to bring him to the stage at Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday.
Dylan’s anti-war lyrics in the pope’s writing
There is already a reference to Dylan in Leo’s work. The pontiff cited lyrics from the musician’s unreleased song Go Away You Bomb in the preface to Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, a book that warns against rearmament.
Dylan wrote the song in 1963, at the height of the Cold War, but it was never recorded. The lyrics, preserved in a typewritten document, did not become public until 2013, when they were discovered and put up for auction, according to The New York Times.
The passage quoted by Leo reads: “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an’ man-handled.”
Pope Leo meets Bob Dylan at the Vatican, November 4, 2026. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.
A second papal encounter
Dylan had met a pope once before. In 1997, he was invited to perform for John Paul II at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, where around 300,000 young people had gathered.
His four-song set included Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. During the performance, Dylan reportedly went up to the stage to greet the pope, shaking his hand and exchanging a few words.
John Paul II, in turn, drew on Dylan’s music in his sermon, quoting the singer’s well-known song Blowin’ in the Wind.
