The famous American singer-songwriter and poet, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, currently on tour in Italy with a stopover in Rome, was received this afternoon at the Apostolic Palace by Leo XIV. The Pontiff had already quoted his words in the preface to a book on disarmament.
By Salvatore Cernuzio
He cited it in July 2026, when, in the preface to a book published by the Vatican Editions (LEV), entitled Disarmed and disarming: peace is a gift– he used the words of one of his poetic compositions (figuratively addressed to the atomic bomb) to issue a stern warning against global rearmament and the nightmare of nuclear weapons: “I hate you because you are created and possessed by man, and manipulated by man.” Today, at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV met in person with Robert Allen Zimmerman, known as Bob Dylan.
The 85-year-old American singer-songwriter and poet, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is currently in Rome. Tomorrow, Thursday, November 5, he will perform at the Palazzo dello Sport as part of the fall leg of his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour, a concert series that also includes stops in Milan and Bologna, and is notable for its strict ban on smartphone recording.
The meeting between Pope Leo and Dylan, who wore a black hooded sweatshirt, was brief, consisting of greetings and some light exchanges. The Holy Father gave the singer a rosary, while Dylan returned the favor with a book: Chronicles: Volume Onehis autobiography, published in the United States and other countries around the world.
Pope Leo XIV and Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan (VATICAN MEDIA)
Quote from a Nobel Prize winner
The verses cited by the pope in the book published by LEV, edited by journalist Alessandro Banfi, come from “Go Away You Bomb”, a protest song written by the artist in 1963, at the height of Cold War tensions. This is a unique piece, given that the song was never officially recorded or released on any music album, and the original manuscript remained unpublished until its discovery in 2013.
A performance in front of John Paul II
This is not the first time that the “minstrel” of rock – a nickname he has had since the start 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, in front of the Pope – then John Paul II – and a crowd of around 300,000 young people. The collective memory retains the image of the singer who, after performing three of his great classics, including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, took off his cowboy hat, climbed the steps of the papal stage and exchanged a handshake and a few brief words with Pope John Paul II.
In his speech to young people at the event, the Pope explicitly quoted the lyrics from “Blowin’ in the Wind”: “You ask me: how many roads must a man travel / before you can call him a man? The Polish Pope responded to this question by saying: “Only one. There is only one path for man, and that is the path of Jesus Christ.”
Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo at the Vatican (VATICAN MEDIA)
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