Pope Leo met with Bob Dylan at the Vatican on Wednesday and the legendary song-writer chose an unusual outfit for the meeting inside the pope's office at the ornate apostolic palace.
Dylan, the acoustic songbird who went electric in the 1960s, dressed in a black coat, black gloves and a black hooded sweatshirt for the occasion. The 71-year-old leader of the Catholic Church wore his customary white cassock.
“Why does he have a hoodie on?” one person remarked after seeing the photos, while a second person wrote: “I thought this was a scene out of Star Wars for a second.”
A third person quipped: “The next Assassin’s Creed lookin’ dope!”
Leo, who is originally from Chicago, is known as a Dylan fan. In a preface of a book released in July, he quoted a 1963 anti-nuclear protest song from the singer, "Go Away You Bomb", in a preface of a book released in July.
Leo and Dylan are fellow travelers from the U.S. Midwest. Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official and Jesuit known for building relationships between the Church and figures in the entertainment industry, said 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 said.
The Vatican's newspaper said Leo had "received in private audience Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman," using the name the musician was given at birth in Duluth, Minnesota.
The Vatican press office did not immediately say what Leo and Dylan discussed.
