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A giddy Patti Smith meets fellow Chicago legend, Pope Leo XIV
The encounter was Leo XIV’s second with a music legend this week, following a concert by tenor Andrea Bocelli, officials said.
- Rock legend Patti Smith met Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace on Friday, where Rev. Antonio Spadaro said the encounter between the two Chicago natives felt like a conversation between old friends.
- Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican's culture ministry, accompanied Smith to the audience. He described the long discussion as sharing memories woven from music, dreams, and hopes between two people discovering they were old friends.
- Smith has maintained a visible presence at the Vatican since meeting Pope Francis in 2013. She praised the late pontiff in a 2025 poem as 'humble yet strong,' writing that nature and poetry would miss their champion.
- The meeting followed Pope Leo's encounter with tenor Andrea Bocelli, who performed a concert in his honor on Wednesday near the Borgo Laudato in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. These high-profile encounters mark Leo's active cultural engagement.
- Earlier this year, Smith performed at the opening of the Vatican's pavilion at the Venice Biennale on May 8, the anniversary of Leo's election. Her ongoing artistic collaboration with the Vatican underscores her deepening spiritual connection.
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VIDEO - Pope Leo XVI received this Friday, July 31 at the Vatican, the American artist Patti Smith. A meeting comparable to reunions between "old friends", according to the undersecretary at the Vatican Ministry of Culture.
·Paris, France
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The poet of punk has participated in a private audience with the current Pope: it was a conversation between two people who have discovered that they are old friends, reports Holy See statement
·Paço de Arcos, Portugal
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources87
Leaning Left21Leaning Right16Center28Last UpdatedBias Distribution43% Center
Bias Distribution
- 43% of the sources are Center
43% Center
L 32%
C 43%
R 25%
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