VATICAN CITY, March 8 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI tried to bar Bob Dylan from a Roman Catholic youth rally in Italy, fearing he was a prophet whose message differed from Pope John Paul II's.
In his memoirs about his predecessor, Pope Benedict recalled events of the World Eucharist Congress in Bologna, Italy, in 1997, and the 300,000-plus crowd about to hear Dylan's songs and their messages that didn't necessarily mirror church teachings, the Telegraph said Wednesday.
"The Pope appeared tired, exhausted.
At that very moment the stars arrived, Bob Dylan and others whose names I do not remember," Benedict wrote. "They had a completely different message from the one which the Pope had. There was reason to be skeptical -- I was, and in some ways I still am -- over whether it was really right to allow this type of 'prophet' to appear.
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Dylan's set included "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and "Blowin' in the Wind," which John Paul used as a basis for his sermon.
Benedict, who has called rock and pop music "anti-Christian," last year canceled the Vatican's Christmas fundraising concert and banned guitars from mass.
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