Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

One of the best serious reads last year was "The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle With the Modern World" by David Gibson. The author of that candid biography, a onetime Vatican Radio staffer, is also blogging Benedict's US visit at Benedictions. Just as impressive as the blogging is SIRIUS Satellite Radio, which has three B16 channels: The Catholic Channel, Papal Archives and Papal Playback. It's rival and possible merger partner, XM, has but one Benedict XVI channel, but it also has Bob Dylan.

Which reminds us. In 1997, Pope John Paul II shared a stage outside Bologna with Dylan. Wearing a Stetson hat and rhinestone-spangled suit, Bob growled his way through " A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Forever Young" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" before approaching the papal throne. He doffed his hat, Nashville Skyline-like, and shook the pontiff's hand. The Pope then preached to the 300,000-strong gathering. How many roads must a man walk down? "Just one," said JP II. What answer is blowing in the wind? "The breath and voice of the Spirit," he replied.

However, in "Giovanni Paolo II — Il mio amato predecessore" (John Paul II — My Beloved Predecessor), Benedetto declared that he was less than delighted with the duet. "The Pope arrived tired, worn out," he wrote. "Just at that moment Bob Dylan, the 'star' of the young, and others whose names I do not recall, turned up. They had a message completely different from that to which the Pope was committed. There was reason to be sceptical — which I was, and in a certain sense still am — to doubt whether it was really right to involve 'prophets' of this type." Doubt very much if Dylan's With God on Our Side is on the papal iPod.