Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan in a private audience at the Vatican on November 4. Photographs published by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication showed the musician wearing a black hoodie with the hood up. In another image, Dylan appeared to sign a book for the Pope after removing one glove.
Dylan, who was raised Jewish, converted to evangelical Christianity in 1978. He later released several Christian albums and performed religious songs, before scaling back that emphasis in subsequent years. In 1997, he played at a concert honoring Pope John Paul II.
Pope Leo has also referenced Dylan’s work. The Pope quoted “Go Away You Bomb,” a lyric Dylan wrote in 1963 for an unpublished book of anti-nuclear poetry, in the preface to his anthology “Unarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift.”
Sources: Pitchfork.