A brief meeting at the Apostolic Palace
Pope Leo XIV welcomed Bob Dylan to the Apostolic Palace in Rome on Wednesday, during the Italian leg of the singer-songwriter's tour. According to Vatican News, the encounter was short. Both men come from the American Midwest, a detail noted in coverage of the visit. The meeting placed a Nobel laureate in literature face to face with the leader of the Roman Catholic Church inside one of the Vatican's principal residences.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
The two exchanged gifts. Leo handed Dylan a rosary, while Dylan gave the pope a copy of Chronicles: Volume One, the first installment of his autobiography. Coverage of the meeting highlighted the swap of a devotional object and a memoir, an unusual pairing that framed the encounter. The visit took place one day before Dylan was due to perform at the Palazzo dello Sport, one of several Italian dates on his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.[S1][S8]
A pope who has quoted Dylan before
Pope Leo has cited Dylan's lyrics before in his published writing. In the foreword to Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, he included a verse from Go Away You Bomb, an anti-nuclear composition Dylan penned in 1963 during the Cold War that was never recorded. The typed lyrics remained unseen by the public until 2013, when they surfaced and were put up for auction, the New York Times reported. The book employed the verse in cautioning the world against rearmament.[S1]
This was not Dylan's first encounter with a pontiff. In 1997 he was invited to perform before John Paul II and roughly 300,000 young people gathered in Bologna for the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress. Dylan played four songs, among them Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and was reported to have climbed onto the stage during the set to shake the pope's hand and exchange a few words. John Paul then cited Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind in his address to the crowd.[S1]
