Pope Leo XIV welcomed legendary American singer-songwriter and 2016 Nobel Prize in literature laureate Bob Dylan to the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
During the meeting, for which Dylan wore a black-hooded jacket, the Holy Father presented him with a rosary, while the 85-year-old singer gifted the pontiff a copy of his autobiography, “Chronicles: Volume One,” according to Vatican News.
Dylan is in Rome for a Thursday, Nov. 5, concert at the Palazzo dello Sport as part of his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour, which also includes stops in Milan and Bologna.
Pope Leo XIV has quoted Dylan
In July, Pope Leo XIV quoted Dylan to criticize the arms race, which he described as something that “frightens and terrifies us today.”
“As singer-songwriter and poet Bob Dylan wrote, figuratively addressing the atomic bomb, in one of his poetic compositions: ‘I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned an’ man-handled,’” the pope wrote, referring to the song “Go Away You Bomb” (1963).
The quote appears in an unpublished text from the book “Unarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift,” published by the Vatican Publishing House. It is the first anthology to collect various statements by Pope Leo XIV on the subject of peace, dating from his election on May 8, 2025.
A performance before St. John Paul II and a multitude of young people
Dylan’s audience with Pope Leo XIV was not the first time the singer-songwriter had met a pope.
In September 1997, Dylan was invited to perform at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy, before St. John Paul II and a crowd of approximately 300,000 young people.
The singer performed some of his hits, such as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” — a song also popularized by Guns N’ Roses and Eric Clapton.
Although Dylan did not perform “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the song’s theme was referenced by Pope John Paul II in his address to the gathering. In the song, the singer-songwriter asks, “How many roads must a man walk down before he can truly call himself a man?” — to which he himself provides the answer, in the song’s title: “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
In his address, John Paul II revisited Dylan’s question, gave it a masterful twist, and offered an answer imbued with Christian realism: “One of your representatives has said, on your behalf, that the answer to the questions in your life ‘is blowin’ in the wind.’ That is true. But it is not the wind that scatters everything into the whirlpools of nothingness; rather, it is the wind that is the breath and voice of the Spirit.”
And he added: “You have asked me: ‘How many paths must a man travel to be able to recognize himself as a man?’ I answer you: one. There is only one path for man; it is Christ, who said: ‘I am the way’ (Jn 14:6). He is the way of truth, the way of life.”
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.