Pope Leo XIV Meets Bob Dylan at the Vatican
The Facts
- Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on Wednesday, during a break in the singer's Italian concert dates. Dylan, 85, is set to perform Thursday at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport on his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour.
- Vatican News described the audience as brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges. Leo gave Dylan a rosary, while the 2016 Nobel literature laureate handed the pope a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."
- Photos from Vatican Media showed the Chicago-born pope in his white cassock shaking hands with Dylan, who wore a black coat, gloves and a hooded sweatshirt. The Vatican newspaper referred to the musician by his birth name, Robert Allen Zimmerman.
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The Spin
Narrative A
A pope receiving the singer who gave a generation its protest songs shows that faith and art still speak to each other. Dylan's restless search through scripture and doubt, and a pope who quotes his anti-nuclear lyric and cares about the exploited, share more than a rosary and a memoir swapped in a brief audience. The Church does well to treat artists as conversation partners.
Narrative B
A rock star in a hoodie, received privately and celebrated online within hours, is a publicity moment, and the Church has long been tempted to chase relevance through fame. Benedict XVI, then a cardinal, doubted that such a figure belonged at Church events, and that caution still has force. The papacy draws its authority from doctrine and service, and a famous guest adds nothing to either.
Public Figures
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