Bob Dylan Meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican Between Concerts in Italy
The pope gave Dylan a rosary; Dylan gave him 'Chronicles: Volume One.' Leo had quoted an unreleased 1963 Dylan anti-nuclear song in his new book.
Bob Dylan met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday during a break between concert dates in Italy, the Associated Press reported via NPR. The Vatican said the encounter was brief.
Leo gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan presented the pope with a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One." Vatican photos showed Dylan, 2016 Nobel laureate in literature, in a black hoodie with the hood up and a loose tie.
The connection
In his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift," Leo quoted "Go Away You Bomb," an unpublished protest song Dylan wrote in 1963, while warning against rearmament and nuclear weapons: "I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an' man-handled."
The Rev. Antonio Spadaro of the Vatican culture ministry, who also accompanied Patti Smith to a July audience with Leo, said Dylan wanted to speak with the pope and the two met privately for a few minutes. Spadaro wrote that Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, grew up with Dylan's music, and noted Dylan's 1967 song "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine." Augustine is the inspiration for Leo's religious order.
History
Dylan played for Pope John Paul II at a 1997 concert in Bologna. Born Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota, he became a born-again Christian in 1979. He played Milan on Monday and plays Rome on Thursday.
What is still unknown
Neither side disclosed what the two discussed.
The developments described above are drawn from contemporaneous reporting by NPR/AP. As of Thursday morning, the pope gave Dylan a rosary; Dylan gave him 'Chronicles: Volume One.' Leo had quoted an unreleased 1963 Dylan anti-nuclear song in his new book. Boston Uncut will update this account if primary agencies release additional records, schedules or statements that change the public facts. Readers seeking the underlying documents should consult the linked sources, which carry the full quotations and agency attributions used here. Where allegations appear, they are labeled as allegations; where vote totals or rankings are cited, they reflect the figures published by the named outlet or agency at the time of reporting.
Coverage of "Bob Dylan Meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican Between Concerts in Italy" sits alongside related Massachusetts and national developments this week. The factual spine of this story remains the linked reporting; any interpretation beyond those facts is limited to describing what the record does and does not yet show. Unanswered questions noted above are not speculation — they are gaps in the public record as of the most recent updates reviewed for this article on 2026-11-05.
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Context for local readers: The pope gave Dylan a rosary; Dylan gave him 'Chronicles: Volume One.' Leo had quoted an unreleased 1963 Dylan anti-nuclear song in his new book. That framing is descriptive, not a prediction of how courts, councils, leagues or agencies will rule. If a primary document — a docket entry, a certified tally, a signed order, an official release — later contradicts a secondary summary used here, the primary document controls and this article should be read as outdated on that point. Allegations in charging papers remain allegations until adjudicated; election returns described as unofficial remain subject to certification deadlines.
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