Pope Leo receives Bob Dylan at the Vatican

By Salvatore Cernuzio

He had quoted him in July 2026, when—in the preface to a book published by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) titled Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift—he used words from one of his poetic compositions (figuratively addressed to the atomic bomb) to issue a stern warning against global rearmament and the nightmare of nuclear weapons: “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an’ man-handled”. Today in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo XIV met in person with Robert Allen Zimmerman, known as Bob Dylan.

The 85-year-old American singer-songwriter and poet, a Nobel Prize laureate in literature, is currently in Rome. Tomorrow, Thursday, November 5, he will perform at the Palazzo dello Sport as part of the autumn leg of his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour—a concert series that also includes stops in Milan and Bologna, and is notable for its strict prohibition on smartphone recording.

The meeting between Pope Leo and Dylan—who wore a black hooded sweatshirt—was brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges. The Holy Father presented the singer with a rosary, while Dylan reciprocated with a book: Chronicles: Volume One, his autobiography, which has been published in the United States and other countries around the world.

Pope Leo XIV and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan   (VATICAN MEDIA) {"@context": "http://schema.org","@type": "ImageObject","contentUrl": "https://www.vaticannews.va/content/dam/vaticannews/agenzie/images/srv/2026/11/04/2026-11-04-bob-dylan/1793809196927.JPG/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg","creditText": "Vatican News","height": "750","width": "422"} Quoting a Nobel laureate

The verses cited by the Pope in the book published by LEV, edited by journalist Alessandro Banfi, come from “Go Away You Bomb,” a protest song written by the artist in 1963, at the height of Cold War tensions. It is a unique piece, given that the song was never officially recorded or released on any music album, and the original manuscript remained unpublished until its discovery in 2013.

A performance before John Paul II

This is not the first time that the “minstrel” of rock—a nickname he has held since the beginning of his career in the 1960s—has met a Pope. In 1997, Dylan was invited to perform alongside other artists at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, before the Pope—then John Paul II—and a crowd of approximately 300,000 young people. The collective memory retains the image of the singer who, after performing three of his great classics—including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”—removed his cowboy hat, climbed the steps to the papal stage, and exchanged a handshake and a few brief words with Pope John Paul.

In his address to the young people at the event, the Pope explicitly quoted the lyrics to “Blowin’ in the Wind”: “You ask me: how many roads must a man walk down / before you can call him a man?” The Polish Pope answered this question by saying: “Only one. There is only one road for man, and that is the road of Jesus Christ.”

Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo at the Vatican   (VATICAN MEDIA) {"@context": "http://schema.org","@type": "ImageObject","contentUrl": "https://www.vaticannews.va/content/dam/vaticannews/agenzie/images/srv/2026/11/04/2026-11-04-bob-dylan/1793809198357.JPG/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg","creditText": "Vatican News","height": "750","width": "422"}