Bob the poet, meet Bob the priest: Pope Leo receives Bob Dylan at the Vatican

Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media/Reuters

They are two of the world’s best-known Bobs from the US Midwest. Now Pope Leo XIV, whose birth name is Robert Prevost, and Bob Dylan, the legendary musician, have met in the Vatican.

Leo and Dylan were both seen meeting in the Vatican’s apostolic palace, the pope’s residence, on Wednesday. The pope was wearing his white cassock and Dylan a black coat, black gloves and a black hoodie.

The meeting was brokered by Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official known for building bridges between the church and wider culture. Spadaro earlier this year arranged a meeting between Pope Leo and Patti Smith.

“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 platforms.

The 71-year-old Chicago-born pontiff knows Dylan’s repertoire. He quoted an unpublished 1963 Dylan Song, “Go Away You Bomb” in the preface to a book-length collection of his addresses and reflections published in July. The 1963 song was an anti-nuclear protest, while Pope Leo has been a critic of the war in Iran and emphasized the Catholic Church’s opposition to nuclear weapons.

Leo is not, however, the first pope that Dylan has met. At a 1997 church event attended by Pope John Paul II in Bologna, Italy, Dylan played some of his songs, including “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”.

John Paul II, taking a famous line from “Blowin’ in the Wind”, said: “You asked me: how many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? I answer you: one! There is only one road of man and it is Christ, who said: ‘I am the way’.”

The meeting was confirmed by the Vatican’s newspaper which said the pope had “received in private audience Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman,” using Dylan’s birth name.

西蒙·里索鲁蒂/梵蒂冈媒体/路透社

他们是美国中西部地区两位最著名的鲍勃。如今，教皇利奥十四世（原名罗伯特·普雷沃斯特）和传奇音乐家鲍勃·迪伦在梵蒂冈会面了。

周三，有人看到利奥和迪伦在梵蒂冈宗座宫（教皇的住所）会面。教皇身穿白色长袍，迪伦则穿着黑色外套、黑色手套和黑色连帽衫。

这次会面由梵蒂冈官员安东尼奥·斯帕达罗神父促成，他以在教会与更广泛的文化之间搭建桥梁而闻名。今年早些时候，斯帕达罗还安排了教皇利奥三世与帕蒂·史密斯的会面。

“很难不被这种充满历史感的邂逅所感染，感觉在宗座宫的每一步，都可能发生任何事情！”斯帕达罗在社交媒体平台上写道。

这位71岁、出生于芝加哥的教宗熟知鲍勃·迪伦的作品。在他7月出版的一本收录其演讲和感想的文集序言中，他引用了迪伦1963年未发表的歌曲《滚开，你这颗炸弹》（Go Away You Bomb）。这首1963年的歌曲是一首反核抗议歌曲，而教宗利奥三世也一直批评伊朗战争，并强调天主教会反对核武器的立场。

然而，利奥并非迪伦见过的第一位教皇。1997年，在意大利博洛尼亚举行的一场由教皇约翰·保罗二世出席的教堂活动中，迪伦演奏了他的一些歌曲，包括《答案在风中飘扬》（Blowin' in the Wind）、《敲响天堂之门》（Knockin' on Heaven's Door）和《暴雨将至》（A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall）。

约翰·保罗二世引用了《答案在风中飘扬》中的一句名言：“你问我：一个人要走多少条路才能被称为真正的男人？我回答你：一条！人生只有一条路，那就是基督，祂说：‘我就是道路’。”

梵蒂冈报纸证实了这次会面，称教皇“私下接见了罗伯特·艾伦·齐默尔曼先生”，这里使用的是迪伦的本名。