VATICAN CITY — Bob Dylan was not knockin’ on heaven’s door, but the iconic singer-songwriter came close on Wednesday.
Dylan, 85, had a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, The New York Times reported.
The pontiff, who grew up in the Chicago area and is the first North American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, quoted Dylan in a preface to “Disarmed and Disarming,” a book on disarmament, shortly before his election last year, according to the newspaper.
Leo XIV referenced Dylan’s lyrics from an obscure 1963 protest song titled “Go Away You Bomb” -- “I hate you cause yer man-made and man-owned, an’ man-handled.”
The two most famous Bobs in the United States -- Dylan was born Robert Zimmerman, while the pontiff’s name at birth was Robert Prevost -- met at the Vatican’s apostolic palace, CNN reported. The pope wore a traditional white cassock, while Dylan looked monk-like, sporting a black coat, black gloves and a black hoodie, according to the cable news outlet.
Dylan also wore what the Times called “a vaguely knotted polka-dot tie.”
The meeting was brokered by Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official who earlier this year arranged a meeting between the pontiff and Patti Smith, CNN reported.
“It was hard not to feel the emotion of being part of an encounter that had a real sense of history about it, with the feeling that, at every step through the Apostolic Palace, absolutely anything could happen!” Spadaro wrote on social media.
The Vatican said the meeting “was brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges.”
While it was the pope’s first meeting with Dylan, it is not the first time the singer has met the head of the Catholic Church.
At a 1997 church event attended by Pope John Paul II in Bologna, Italy, Dylan played some of his songs, CNN reported. They included “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”
In addition to Smith, Leo XIV met earlier this year with musician Bad Bunny in Spain, the Times reported.
The Vatican said that the pope presented the Nobel Prize-winning musician with a rosary. Dylan gave Leo XIV a copy of his autobiography, “Chronicles: Volume One.”
Dylan is scheduled to perform in concert on Thursday at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome as part of the autumn leg of the singer’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour, the Vatican said.
© 2026 Cox Media Group
