Bob Dylan’s Vatican audience was private, organizer says
Jesuit priest Antonio Spadaro said Dylan and Pope Leo XIV were receptive to meeting, but gave no details of their discussion.
The organizer of Bob Dylan’s Vatican visit has described a private encounter with Pope Leo XIV, saying the musician expressed interest and the pontiff was receptive. Antonio Spadaro did not disclose the subjects they discussed.
Spadaro, a Jesuit priest and undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, spoke to Ray Padgett for his newsletter, Flagging Down The Double E’s. He said Dylan’s party arrived 15 minutes before its scheduled 3:45 p.m. arrival, then waited until 4:20 p.m. before going upstairs.
Their destination was Leo’s apartment in the Terza Loggia palace, where the two sat at a library table, Spadaro said. He described the pope as unsurprised by Dylan’s clothing, which included a hoodie, and emphasized the informal nature of the private audience.
The priest also organized Patti Smith’s July 31 audience with Leo. According to his account, that conversation ran for about forty minutes. Dylan’s earlier papal encounter came in 1997, when he performed “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” before Pope John Paul II and about 300,000 young people in Bologna.
