Bob Dylan meets with Pope Leo at the Vatican

ROME - Bob Dylan met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday, marking another encounter between the legendary American singer-songwriter and a leader of the Catholic Church.

Bob Dylan meets with Pope Leo

Big picture view:

The Vatican said the meeting was brief and included greetings and a "few lighthearted exchanges." Leo presented Dylan with a rosary, while the 84-year-old singer-songwriter gave the pope a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."

Dylan wore a black hooded sweatshirt and a loose tie during the encounter. The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture ministry official who accompanied the singer, said Dylan had wanted to speak with Leo and the two met privately for a few minutes.

Dylan met with Leo in between concert dates in Italy. He played in Milan on Monday and is playing Rome on Thursday. In his most recent concert before the meeting with the pope, Dylan sang his 1997 song "Tryin’ to Get to Heaven" that contains the lyric, "I’ve been all around the world, boys/Now I’m trying to get to heaven before they close the door."

Bob Dylan previously performed before a pope

The backstory:

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. 

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In his address to the 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."

In an essay published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Spadaro noted that Leo, formerly known as Robert Prevost, grew up in Chicago, familiar with Dylan's music. He also highlighted their shared interest in St. Augustine of Hippo, whose teachings inspired Leo's spirituality and religious order. Dylan wrote the song "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" for his 1967 album "John Wesley Harding."

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