Pope Leo meets Bob Dylan in private audience

Pope Leo XIV holds a private audience with legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan at the Vatican.

Leo and Dylan, fellow travellers from the American Midwest, are seen meeting together in the pope’s office at the ornate Apostolic Palace in photos shared by the Vatican’s newspaper on social media.

The 71-year-old leader of the Catholic Church wears his customary white cassock. Dylan, who is Jewish, wears a black coat, black gloves and a black hooded sweatshirt.

Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official and Jesuit known for building relationships between the Church and figures in the entertainment industry, says on Instagram that he had helped arrange the meeting.

“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!” he writes.

The Vatican’s newspaper says Leo had “received in private audience Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman,” using the musician’s birth name.

Leo, originally from Chicago, is known as a Dylan fan. He quoted a 1963 anti-nuclear protest song from the singer, “Go Away You Bomb,” in a preface of a book released in July.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.