Bob Dylan, the Nobel‑prize‑winning singer‑songwriter, stopped by the Vatican on Wednesday during a break between concert dates in Italy. He met privately with Pope Leo XIV, who presented Dylan with a rosary while Dylan gave the pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One.
Faith and music intersect
The Vatican released a brief statement noting that Pope Leo quoted an unpublished protest song Dylan wrote in 1963, “Go Away You Bomb,” in his 2026 book Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift. The pope warned against the rush to rearm and the use of nuclear weapons, citing the lyric addressed to a hypothetical atomic bomb: “I hate you cause yer man‑made and man‑owned, an’ man‑handled.”
Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a culture‑ministry official who has previously escorted artists such as Patti Smith, and Andrea Monda, editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Spadaro said Dylan wanted a private conversation with the pope, and the two spoke for a few minutes.
Dylan’s spiritual background
Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota, became a born‑again Christian in 1979, a move that surprised many longtime fans. He has since expressed a personal, contemplative faith, noting in a 2022 Wall Street Journal interview that he is a “religious person” who reads scripture, meditates and prays.
He has long admired St. Augustine of Hippo, the inspiration for Pope Leo’s Augustinian spirituality, even writing the song “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” for his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. The pope’s cultural ministry highlighted this connection in an essay for L’Osservatore Romano.
Previous papal encounters
This was not Dylan’s first meeting with a pontiff. He performed for Pope John Paul II in 1997 during a concert that capped a religious congress in Bologna, Italy. The legendary musician’s recent tour included a show in Milan on Monday and an upcoming performance in Rome on Thursday, where he sang his 1997 song “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven.”
AP reporter Scott Bauer contributed from Madison, Wisconsin.
Original reporting: Allentown News – 6abc Philadelphia — read the source article.
