Jamaine Punzalan

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17811424606551781142454332.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"></span></span></span></div><p>This handout photo taken and released on June 6, 2026 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV delivering a speech to media onboard the plane heading to Madrid. Elisabetta Trevisan, Vatican Media via AFP</p><div><br/></div><p>Six-sevening crowds and joking about Bad Bunny, AI and football rivalries -- 70-year-old Pope Leo XIV has appealed to a younger crowd during his visit to Spain as part of his efforts to revive the Catholic Church.</p><p>On popemobile rides, the leader of the world&#x27;s 1.4 billion Catholics has frequently been seen doing the 6-7 hand gesture -- a reference to a meme that has spread widely on social media and is popular with teens.</p><p>Along with the masses and institutional events, there have also been multiple meetings with young people where the pope has used more down-to-earth language and spoken about topical issues like mental health.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UBawqmJrdFk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></div><p>The pontiff, fluent in Spanish, also held a private meeting with Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny, just after addressing a crowd of 80,000 people at Real Madrid&#x27;s famed Bernabeu stadium.</p><p>On the plane to Madrid, the pope had joked about facing competition from Bad Bunny who was giving concerts in the Spanish capital at the same time.</p><p>&quot;If they are confronted with the question &#x27;Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or do you want to go to see the pope?&#x27; I think many will see Bad Bunny.</p><p>&quot;But I think there will also be a few here to see the pope. And that says something,&quot; he told reporters.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;SPONTANEOUS MOMENTS&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;He&#x27;s clearly making an effort to reach out to young people,&quot; said US Vatican expert Elise Ann Allen, who has written a biography of the pope.</p><p>But she said there were also many &quot;spontaneous moments&quot; -- like when the football-mad pope confessed to reporters that he was a supporter of Real Madrid, not Barcelona.</p><p>&quot;I think these are just the pope being himself,&quot; she said.</p><p>On the flight from Madrid to Barcelona, the pope rode part of the way in the cockpit -- visibly enjoying himself and waving out of the window to a fighter jet accompanying the plane.</p><p>He joked with the pilots, according to video released by the Spanish carrier, Iberia.</p><p>When one of the pilots told him he was a fan of Real Madrid, whose players wear white shirts, the pope responded: &quot;I&#x27;m all in white. In Barcelona you have to be careful.&quot;</p><p>The pope has spoken about the challenges and opportunities of the digital age for the young and devoted his first encyclical -- a sort of papal manifesto -- to artificial intelligence.</p><p>He joked about AI&#x27;s limitations with an anecdote at a lunch in Madrid, where he told guests that he had asked AI before his visit what he should say to Spanish bishops.</p><p>&quot;The artificial intelligence told him that &#x27;Pope Francis would say&#x27;... so he stopped it and said: &#x27;I think there&#x27;s another pope&#x27;,&quot; Yago de la Cierva, coordinator of the papal visit, told reporters.</p><p>&quot;Then the artificial intelligence said, &#x27;Ah, that&#x27;s right, it&#x27;s now Pope Leo.&#x27;&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/5/17/pope-leo-calls-for-usage-of-ai-to-respect-truth-of-humankind-2159">Pope Leo calls for usage of AI to respect &#x27;truth of humankind&#x27; </a></div><p>In his speech to Spanish bishops, he urged them to &quot;build a new reality through respectful dialogue and the use of new languages&quot; to evangelize, urging them to recognize young people&#x27;s &quot;search for meaning&quot;.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;LISTENS TO YOUNG PEOPLE&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;I think this pope listens a lot to young people,&quot; said Alejandra Landae, a 28-year-old Mexican student in Barcelona, as she waited Wednesday near the Sagrada Familia basilica to see Pope Leo XIV.</p><p>Jose Maria Romero, a 20-year-old student from Seville who was also waiting nearby, agreed, saying the pope &quot;is trying to unite young people&quot;.</p><p>Allen said more and more young people were taking an interest in the Catholic Church.</p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s something stirring in the waters, and he sees that and he wants to take advantage of it,&quot; she said.</p><p>Rafael Ruiz, professor of sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, told El Pais daily that recent surveys showed a rise of Catholicism among younger Spaniards.</p><p>&quot;We do not know whether this is a Catholic resurgence or simply a stabilisation of the secularization process,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;What we are seeing more clearly is an increase in the visibility of Catholicism and in the normalisation of Catholicism among young people,&quot; he said.</p><p>Around 56 percent of Spaniards identify as Catholic compared to 90 percent in the 1970s, according to a survey last month by the Centre for Sociological Research, an autonomous government body.</p><p>An opinion piece in Spanish daily La Vanguardia said the pope was &quot;making God fashionable&quot;.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/6/7/over-1-2-million-people-attend-pope-s-mass-in-madrid-2129">Over 1.2 million people attend Pope&#x27;s mass in Madrid</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/6/9/pope-promises-abuse-victims-church-will-do-more-to-change-0959">Pope promises abuse victims Church will do more to change </a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2026/6/6/-prevost-is-real-madrid-pope-enters-spanish-football-schism-2145">&#x27;Prevost is Real Madrid!&#x27;: Pope enters Spanish football schism</a></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZF31IdqtUI8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GRCPCfd5aE4?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rpX4b9sKwXc?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></div>

<p>Six-sevening crowds and joking about Bad Bunny, AI and football rivalries -- 70-year-old Pope Leo XIV has appealed to a younger crowd during his visit to Spain as part of his efforts to revive the Catholic Church. </p>

Six-sevening crowds and joking about Bad Bunny, AI and football rivalries -- 70-year-old Pope Leo XIV has appealed to a younger crowd during his visit to Spain as part of his efforts to revive the Catholic Church.

6-7, Bad Bunny, AI: Pope targets the young

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6-7, Bad Bunny, AI: Pope targets the young

Agence France-Presse

Published June 11, 2026 09:48 AM PHT

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