Bob Dylan Meets Pope Leo XIV in Brief Private Audience at the Vatican
Photo: New York PostBob Dylan met Pope Leo XIV in a brief private audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, during a break between concert dates in Italy. The Vatican said the encounter was short. Leo gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan gave the pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. Vatican News described the meeting as greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges. Two Vatican officials accompanied Dylan: 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 the pope and that the two met privately for a few minutes. Leo, the American pope born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, quoted Dylan's unpublished 1963 protest song "Go Away You Bomb" in his 2026 book Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, which warns against the race to rearm and the recourse to nuclear weapons. Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.
The right-leaning New York Post gives the fullest account of the meeting. It leads with Dylan "coming knocking" at the pope's door, names Spadaro and Monda, relays Spadaro's essay on Leo growing up with Dylan's music, and notes Dylan's familiarity with St. Augustine through "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," tying it to Leo's Augustinian order. It also mentions Dylan's black hoodie. Newsmax uses a similar play on "knocking on heaven's door" and stresses the private audience. Left-leaning Rolling Stone focuses on the music-world context: Leo's earlier meetings with Patti Smith and Bad Bunny, the history of the 1963 song and its 2013 Christie's auction, and Izzy Young's recollection. The Washington Post leads on Dylan's clothing, a black hooded sweatshirt, hat, tie and gloves. Both sides report the gifts, the brevity and the book's Dylan quote. They differ mainly in emphasis: the right on Vatican voices and spiritual links, the left on cultural background and appearance. The South China Morning Post largely matches the right-leaning account.
How the sides differ Right sources add Vatican officials' accounts and Dylan's St. Augustine link; left sources stress the pope's book quoting Dylan and Dylan's outfit; alternative sources largely mirror the right.
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- The Washington PostPaywallBob Dylan meets Pope Leo XIV in a hoodie
Rolling Stone situates the meeting among Leo's encounters with musicians and traces the 1963 song's history, citing Vatican News and Izzy Young; The Washington Post headline focuses on Dylan's hoodie and clothing.
The South China Morning Post reports the brief meeting, the gift exchange and Leo's quoting of Dylan's 1963 song in his book, closely tracking the right-leaning account.
The New York Post details who accompanied Dylan, Spadaro's comments and Dylan's St. Augustine connection, while Newsmax stresses the private audience with a play on Dylan's "heaven's door" lyric.