Pope Leo XIV, Bob Dylan share brief audience at Vatican

This photo taken and handout on November 4, 2026 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV during a meeting with US singer Bob Dylan in The Vatican. — Vatican Media handout via AFP

First Published: Thursday, 05 Nov 2026 10:06 AM MYT

VATICAN CITY, Nov 5 — Pope Leo XIV today received Bob Dylan in the Vatican at an audience for which the US folk music legend wore a black hooded sweater.

The 85-year-old singer-songwriter, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, is currently in Italy on tour.

A report on the official Vatican News website said the meeting was “brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges”.

The pope gave Dylan a rosary and the singer gifted the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics his autobiography, the report said.

Leo, the first US pope, quoted a Bob Dylan lyric in the preface to a book about disarmament published earlier this year, according to Vatican News.

Leo, 71, has taken strongly anti-war positions and clashed with US President Donald Trump following his criticism of the Middle East war.

Leo is not the first pope Dylan has met.

He sang at a prayer vigil for young people in Bologna in 1997 hosted by John Paul II.

Dylan, who released his first album in 1963, was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature in 2016. — AFP