Updated

Updated · GQ · Nov 4

Bob Dylan, 85, Meets Pope Leo XIV at Vatican as Rome Tour Stop Fuels Surprise Visit

Updated

Updated · GQ · Nov 4

Bob Dylan, 85, Meets Pope Leo XIV at Vatican as Rome Tour Stop Fuels Surprise Visit

Q: What secret conversations passed between Bob Dylan and Pope Leo XIV during their brief, highly unusual Vatican meeting?

No one outside the room knows the substance of the private conversation, and the Vatican has disclosed only that it lasted a few minutes and involved greetings and “a few lighthearted exchanges.” What can be said with confidence is that the meeting had clear themes. Pope Leo XIV has publicly admired Dylan’s work, especially the unpublished 1963 anti-nuclear song “Go Away You Bomb,” which he quoted in his book on peace and disarmament. Vatican-linked accounts also indicate Leo brought up that song in the context of peace, nuclear danger and rearmament. The exchange of gifts offers the best concrete clue to the tone of the audience. Leo gave Dylan a rosary, while Dylan handed the pope his memoir, *Chronicles: Volume One*. That suggests a symbolic conversation as much as a verbal one: religion, memory, art and the moral role of culture. There is also broader context for likely points of contact. Vatican officials accompanying Dylan, including Rev. Antonio Spadaro, have emphasized the pope’s longstanding familiarity with Dylan’s music and Dylan’s own engagement with religious themes, including St. Augustine in “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.” Dylan has also described himself in recent years as a religious person who reads scripture, meditates and prays. So the “secret” part remains secret. The verified picture is of a short, cordial, private meeting centered on peace, culture and spirituality, not a substantive public statement or negotiated message.

3 articles · Updated · GQ · Nov 4

Images released by the Vatican showed Bob Dylan in a private audience with Pope Leo XIV during a break in his European tour, ahead of a Nov. 5 concert in Rome.
The 85-year-old singer had played Milan on Nov. 2 before traveling to Rome, turning an off-day into an unexpected Vatican stop that quickly spread across U.S. social media.
The meeting followed an exchange of gifts reported earlier — a rosary from the pope and Dylan’s autobiography — and revived a link between the two men after Leo quoted Dylan’s 1963 anti-nuclear lyrics in July.
It was Dylan’s second papal encounter after meeting John Paul II in 1997, adding another unlikely chapter to the artist’s long-running European tour.