Bob Dylan held a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, during a break between Italian concert dates. The Vatican said the encounter was brief, with a rosary and a copy of "Chronicles: Volume One" exchanged.
Pope Leo XIV met Bob Dylan in a private audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, November 4. Dylan visited during a break between concert dates in Italy. He met the pope in Vatican City ahead of a scheduled Thursday performance at the Palazzo dello Sport as part of his ongoing tour. Dylan played in Milan on Monday and is playing Rome on Thursday.
The Vatican said the encounter was brief, with Leo giving Dylan a rosary and Dylan presenting the pope with a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One." According to Vatican News, the meeting consisted of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges. Dylan was accompanied by two Vatican officials: the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican culture ministry official, and Andrea Monda, editor of L'Osservatore Romano. Spadaro said Dylan had wanted to speak with Leo, and the two met in private for a few minutes.
Leo quoted from Dylan's unpublished 1963 protest song "Go Away You Bomb" in his 2026 book "Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift." He did so while warning against the race to rearm and the recourse to nuclear weapons.
Dylan previously played for Pope John Paul II in 1997 during a concert capping a religious congress in Bologna, Italy. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. In a 2022 Wall Street Journal interview, Dylan said he was a religious person who reads the scriptures, meditates and prays.
