In a development that has left Vatican protocol officials quietly weeping into their cappuccinos, Bob Dylan was granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this morning (November 4). The meeting further cements the pontiff's downtown bona fides, having already welcomed Patti Smith in July - because nothing says "cool pope" like a backstage pass to CBGB's alumni association.

Dylan, the mythically private and fuss-refusing Nobel laureate, reportedly wore a black hoodie - hood up - seemingly held aloft by a black baseball cap, for the occasion. The sartorial choice was captured in a photo published by the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, which presumably had to check twice that they weren't publishing a still from a 1990s MTV Unplugged rehearsal. Another photo seemingly shows Dylan signing a book for His Holiness, having removed a single glove - a gesture of such profound reverence that Michael Jackson's estate is reportedly considering legal action.

Although raised Jewish, Dylan converted to evangelical Christianity in 1978, releasing a string of Christian albums and peppering his live shows with Christian songs - astounding legions of fans and contemporaries alike. He dialed down the religious fervor in subsequent years, primarily expressing his accord with God through the medium of Christmas songs, which is certainly one way to keep the faith. In 1997, he played at a concert honoring Pope John Paul II, proving that his relationship with the papacy is at least as enduring as his relationship with his own setlist.

Pope Leo, for his part, appears to be quite the Dylan scholar. He quoted the little-known Dylan lyric "Go Away You Bomb" - written in 1963 for an unpublished book of anti-nuclear poetry - in the preface to *Unarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift*, an anthology of his speeches. Because if there's one thing a 21st-century pope needs, it's a deep-cut reference to a 60-year-old protest poem that even Dylan's most obsessive fans had to Google.