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Vatican News reported that Pope Leo XIV received the 85-year-old Nobel laureate in literature at the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday for a short audience filled with greetings and lighthearted exchanges. The Chicago-born pontiff presented his guest with a rosary while Dylan dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt with gloves and carrying an umbrella offered a copy of his 2004 autobiography Chronicles Volume One. Both men hail from the American Midwest with Dylan originating from Hibbing Minnesota adding a personal dimension to the encounter that Vatican officials described as warm.
According to the same Vatican outlet the meeting followed Pope Leo’s earlier citation of Dylan’s work in a July 2026 publication. In the preface to the book Disarmed and Disarming Peace Is a Gift the pontiff drew on lyrics from the unreleased song Go Away You Bomb to caution against global rearmament and nuclear threats. The quoted line I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned an’ man-handled formed part of a broader appeal for disarmament issued by the Vatican Publishing House.
The 1963 composition emerged at the height of Cold War tensions when Dylan responded to a request for nuclear-themed material Rolling Stone magazine has documented in past coverage of the songwriter’s archive. The typewritten lyrics remained unpublished until their discovery and auction in 2013. Dylan has never officially recorded the track yet it resonated sufficiently for the current pope to incorporate it into his reflections on peace.
Dylan is in Italy for the autumn leg of his long-running Rough and Rowdy Ways tour which enforces a strict ban on mobile phone use during performances multiple reports indicated. He is scheduled to take the stage at Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday November 5 following earlier stops in Milan and Bologna. The tour break allowed for the Vatican visit arranged with assistance from church officials engaged in cultural outreach.
This marks the second occasion on which Dylan has met with a pope according to accounts from Wanted in Rome and other publications. In 1997 he performed before St John Paul II at the National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna playing Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door to an audience of 300000 before shaking hands with the pontiff on stage. The 2026 audience continues a pattern of engagement between the musician and Catholic leadership.
Rev Antonio Spadaro who helped facilitate the meeting and had previously accompanied musician Patti Smith to a papal audience shared his impressions afterward. Speaking on social media Spadaro noted the emotional weight of the moment stating It was hard not to feel the emotion of being part of an encounter that had a real sense of history about it with the feeling that at every step through the Apostolic Palace absolutely anything could happen. The Vatican culture ministry official underscored the significance of bridging popular culture with the church’s mission.
In a 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal Dylan said I’m a religious person. I read the scriptures a lot meditate and pray light candles in church. I believe in damnation and salvation as well as predestination. The Five Books of Moses Pauline Epistles Invocation of the Saints all of it. The singer-songwriter’s body of work has long intersected with themes of faith justice and human struggle elements that appear to have drawn the attention of Pope Leo XIV. The encounter adds to a series of meetings the pontiff has held with prominent artists in recent months including Bad Bunny and Patti Smith.
