Bob Dylan, the 85-year-old songwriter and Nobel Prize-winning poet, spent a few quiet minutes with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 4. The visit came during a break in Dylan’s autumn tour of Italy, a day before he was scheduled to perform at Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday, Nov. 5.
According to Vatican News, the meeting took place in the Apostolic Palace and was brief, made up of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges. The pope gave Dylan a rosary. Dylan gave the pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. The Associated Press, in a report carried by PBS NewsHour, said Dylan spoke privately with Leo for a few minutes, and that Vatican culture official the Rev. Antonio Spadaro said Dylan “had wanted to speak with Leo.” Spadaro and Andrea Monda, editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, accompanied him.
Photos released by the Vatican showed the Nobel laureate in a black hooded sweatshirt and a loose tie, with the hood over his head. But behind the casual look is a story with deeper roots, and one that points back to an old promise in the book of Isaiah.
A pope who quoted a Dylan song about peace
The meeting did not come out of nowhere. In July, Pope Leo wrote the preface to Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift, a book published by the Vatican Publishing House. In it, Vatican News reports, the pope drew on “Go Away You Bomb,” a 1963 Dylan protest song written at the height of Cold War tensions, to warn against global rearmament and nuclear weapons. The song was never officially recorded, and its original manuscript stayed unpublished until it was discovered in 2013.
Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago in 1955, grew up familiar with Dylan’s music, according to Spadaro. The pope is an Augustinian, shaped by the spirituality of St. Augustine of Hippo. Dylan knows Augustine too: he wrote “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” for his 1967 album John Wesley Harding.
For Christians, a pope reaching for a songwriter’s words to plead for peace echoes one of the most famous peace passages in all of Scripture. Long before anyone wrote protest songs, the prophet Isaiah described a day when the Lord himself would settle the disputes of the nations:
“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” — Isaiah 2:4 (KJV)
Notice where Isaiah places the hope. Peace does not begin with clever treaties or with weapons built to scare an enemy. It begins when the nations come to the Lord to be taught his ways, as the verses just before it say, and when he is the judge. Swords are not simply laid down; they are hammered into tools that feed people.
Dylan’s long road with faith
Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman to a Jewish family in Minnesota. In 1979 he became a born-again Christian, and songs from that period, such as “Gotta Serve Somebody” and “Saved,” alienated some longtime fans, the AP noted. In a 2022 interview with The Wall Street Journal, he described himself as a religious person who reads scripture, meditates and prays, though he has been more reserved about his beliefs in recent years.
This was not his first papal encounter. In 1997, Dylan performed three songs before Pope John Paul II and roughly 300,000 young people at the National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy, then climbed the steps to the papal stage to shake the pope’s hand. Vatican News recalled that John Paul II, quoting “Blowin’ in the Wind,” answered the song’s question by pointing the crowd to one road: “the road of Jesus Christ.”
Leo has welcomed other artists, too. In July he received rock singer Patti Smith, also accompanied by Spadaro. The pope is also preparing for a journey that Upstormed News covered in “Good Tidings of Great Joy”: Pope Leo XIV Readies South America Journey.
Why it matters for families
A famous musician seeking out a few minutes with a church leader, and a church leader quoting a song to argue for peace, can start a good conversation at the dinner table about where real peace comes from.
A few ideas for this week:
- Read Isaiah 2:1-5 together and ask what it would look like to turn a “sword” in your own home, such as a sharp word or a grudge, into something that helps.
- Talk about how music can carry faith. Which hymns or songs have helped your family pray?
- Pray for peace in places of conflict and for leaders, as Upstormed News encouraged in After Election Day, a Call to Pray for Leaders and Neighbors.
What to watch next
Dylan’s Rome concert is set for Thursday night, Nov. 5, as part of his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour, which also included a Nov. 2 show in Milan and a stop in Bologna. His concerts strictly prohibit smartphone recording, so fans should not expect much video. Pope Leo’s peace book remains in print through the Vatican Publishing House. Upstormed News will keep following the pope’s travels and his appeals for peace.
Read more: Mighty Man of Valour? What Gideon Teaches Us When We Feel Too Small
Which song or hymn has pointed you toward God’s peace? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Sources: Vatican News, “Pope Leo receives Bob Dylan at the Vatican” (November 4, 2026); PBS NewsHour/Associated Press, “Pope Leo XIV welcomes Bob Dylan to the Vatican in a brief visit” (November 4, 2026); The Christian Citizen, “Weekly religion news roundup (October 30-November 5, 2026)” (November 5, 2026); Christianity.com, “Isaiah 2:4 (KJV)”.
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