Heaven's door closed to Dylan

Heaven's door closed to Dylan

It was unlikely that the pair would ever be close friends: Pope Benedict XVI, conservative theologian, and Bob Dylan, iconoclastic singer and poet. Yet the pontiff's feelings about the singer run so deep that he once tried to stop him performing at the Vatican.

In his new book, Pope Benedict recalls his doubts over whether Dylan should have been allowed to play a concert at the behest of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in 1997. Describing Dylan as a "type of 'prophet'", he claimed the singer's message diverged from that the Pope wished to convey.

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After failing to stop the concert, Pope Benedict, then a Cardinal, was forced to endure a set by Dylan which included Knockin' on Heaven's Door and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall with Forever Young as an encore.

Pope John Paul II followed the performance with a sermon which addressed the message of Dylan's hit Blowing in the Wind. "You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend," he said. "So it is: but it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, 'Come!'" This brought the house down. The Pope added: "You ask me how many roads a man must walk down before he becomes a man. I answer: there is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said, 'I am the Way and the Life'."

Guardian