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Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo at the Vatican ahead of Rome concert
Updated · First published 5 Nov 2026
Bob Dylan has met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, a day before playing a concert in Rome.
The 85-year-old Nobel Prize-winning singer was received by the Pope at the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday afternoon. Vatican News said the meeting was brief, with greetings and light conversation.
Read more: Pete Doherty announces 2027 UK tour, ending with a homecoming show at Hackney Church
Pope Leo XIV met with American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in a private audience on Wednesday, November 4.
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) @VaticanNews
Why did Bob Dylan meet the Pope?
The two have a connection. In July, Pope Leo wrote the preface to a book on peace published by the Vatican, in which he quoted a Dylan song written in 1963 as a warning against nuclear weapons. The song was never officially released, and the handwritten lyrics were only discovered in 2013.
It is not Dylan’s first meeting with a Pope. In 1997 he performed in Bologna in front of Pope John Paul II and around 300,000 young people, and shook his hand afterwards.
Bob Dylan’s tour
Dylan is in Italy on the autumn leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, with shows in Rome, Milan and Bologna. As at all his recent concerts, phones are locked away, so there are no smartphone videos of the shows.
Sources: Vatican News, NPR, Rolling Stone.
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