BOB DYLAN MEETS THE POPE AND LEAVES THE VATICAN WITH A ROSARY!
Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan on 4 November. He gave Dylan a rosary, and the musician gave him a copy of his autobiography.
Bob Dylan came to the Vatican with a book. Pope Leo XIV gave him a rosary. The book was Chronicles – Volume 1, Dylan’s account of his life in his own words. He gave it to the Pope when they met on 4 November, the day before his concert in Rome.
It was a simple scene. Dylan wore a black hoodie. He and the Pope sat at a table, said hello and traded a few jokes. Then came the gifts.
Leo had already quoted Dylan
In July, the Pope quoted lines from Go Away You Bomb, a text Dylan wrote in 1963 in protest against the atomic bomb. Leo used the lines in the volume Disarmata e disarmante. La pace è un dono while discussing rearmament. Dylan never recorded the piece. The manuscript was found in 2013.
If you have a ticket for Rome or Bologna, our guide to the phone-free concerts explains what happens to your phone at the door.
In Bologna, nearly thirty years earlier
Dylan had met a pope before. In 1997 he performed in front of John Paul II at the Eucharistic Congress in Bologna. After his set, he took off his cowboy hat, climbed the steps to the stage and shook the Pope’s hand.
That day, John Paul II picked up a question from Blowin’ in the Wind. The song asks about the roads a person takes in life. John Paul II answered by pointing to the way of Jesus Christ. Twenty-nine years later, Dylan and a pope have something else to exchange. This time it is a book and a rosary.
