Dylan And John Paul A Duet Made In Heaven

It’s the stuff of which legends are made: The rebel who’s been knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door meeting the man with the keys to the kingdom.

Saturday night’s concert is likely to go down as one of the more unlikely encounters of modern times: Bob Dylan playing for Pope John Paul II.

The evening, the highlight of a weeklong religious congress in Bologna, was billed as a chance for the 77-year-old pope to spend time with young people “and their music.”

Sitting on a raised dais on one side of the open-air stage, he saluted the performers, who included the Harlem Gospel Singers belting out a rousing version of “Amen.”

And when he spoke to the crowd of 200,000, John Paul used a classic Dylan song, “Blowing in the Wind” to make his point.

The answer, he said, is indeed blowing in the wind, “the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says ‘Come!”’ “You’ve asked me: ‘How many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man,”’ he continued, still quoting from the song.

“I answer you: One! There is only one road for man, and it is Christ, who said ‘I am the life.”’ A few seconds later, Dylan, who survived a potentially fatal illness this summer, swung into “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” The crowd went wild.

One more number, “Hard Rain,” and Dylan suddenly swept off his white cowboy hat and ascended the stairs of the dais. The pope rose to meet him and, as Dylan bowed his head slightly, they clasped each others’ hands.

With that, the pope, tired from a long day of travel and public appearances left, thanking the crowd.

The Italian church called the Bologna concert a landmark, a first - and by its own admission, belated - attempt to reach out with pop music. The church plans a CD called “Hope Music,” including cuts by many of the Italian stars who performed Saturday night.

Going into its third millennium, the Italian church will emerge from its “curtain of incense,” said Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the archbishop of Bologna, and “walk in the world.”

The concert was broadcast live on Italian state television.