Thanks to Sue for this link to an interesting article on the Benedict/Dylan/John Paul story by Bill McGarvey:

In retrospect, although I was raised a Catholic, I now realise that my first religious experience came through music. I had no illusions that any of the artists who moved me were “prophets”, much less gods. I did however have a sense that through them I was able to catch some refracted ray of truth — something universal that can be hinted at only in great works of art.

Fortunately for many of us whose faith journeys don’t follow a script, Pope Benedict’s new book doesn’t carry the same weight as the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), which so wisely and eloquently stated in its preface: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age … these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.”

If ever there was an artist who spoke to the joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties of the men of this age — an artist whose heart has echoed deeply with all that is genuinely human — Bob Dylan would be it.

And thanks to Joe for his e-mailed thoughts on the same subject:

I think that one reason why Pope Benedict was/is leery about pop music & Bob in particular is that he was in (West) Germany in the ’60s where the social upheaval was just as bad as in the US & he probably feels rightly or wrongly, that Bob’s music was one of the major forces behind the upheaval. Pope John Paul II on the other hand was behind the Iron Curtain & felt that the major problem was Communism/Marxism & probably “got” Bob a bit better.

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