There is apparently room for Bad Bunny in La Casita of the Lord.
The Vatican said on Tuesday that Pope Leo, who is making his first trip as pontiff to Spain, had a brief meeting Monday evening with the reggaeton star, who was also touring Madrid. Bad Bunny’s visit involved packed mega-concerts featuring celebrities bumping and grinding in La Casita, a replica of a traditional Puerto Rican home.
“I confirm it,” a Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, told reporters of the encounter.
Bad Bunny, given name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, “was with his family and some other people,” Mr. Bruni said. Leo “greeted them briefly before leaving the stadium,” where they had come to see the pope at an event with Madrid’s Catholics.
The two icons, one of Catholicism, the other of the club, had seemingly divided the Spanish capital into two fan bases.
Fans of Bad Bunny paid hundreds of euros for tickets to his event at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, where the soccer team Atlético Madrid plays. Leo supports their powerhouse crosstown rival, Real Madrid, and his event on Monday evening at the team’s Bernabéu stadium was free.
There, after spinning around a stadium packed to the rafters, Leo declared that “singing is a necessity that permeates our shared life,” and said he was “pleased to join my voice with yours in praising God and in strengthening the bonds of such a beautiful ecclesial family.”
After the event, the Vatican spokesman said, Leo briefly greeted the singer and his entourage.
The Vatican said it did not expect to release photos of the encounter.
“Bad Bunny meets Pope Leo in Madrid, but should have taken more photos,” read a Reuters headline Tuesday — a play on the name of the artist’s Grammy-winning album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”
The reporters flying with Leo to Spain had been asking him about Bad Bunny since the beginning of the trip.
“If they are confronted with the question: Do they want to see Bad Bunny or do they want to see the pope,” Leo told CNN’s Christopher Lamb, “I think many will go to see Bad Bunny.”
“But,” Leo added, “I think there will also be a few there to see the pope. And that says something, you know.”
While both draw enormous crowds and often dress in white, the two men had somewhat different messages for the young people of Madrid.
In his hit song, “Tití Me Preguntó,” Bad Bunny sings about a marriage-minded aunt.
“Hey, auntie asked me if I have a lot of girlfriends, a lot of girlfriends,” he sings in Spanish, continuing, “Today I have one, tomorrow I’ll have another, hey, but there’s no wedding.”
At a Saturday evening vigil attended by hundreds of thousands of young Spaniards, Leo, too, raised the question of marriage. He went off script to urge them to tie the knot and get busy making families.
“As I said before: Do not be afraid to consider a vocation,” he said. “Marriage is also a vocation. Do not be afraid of marriage and starting a family!”
On Tuesday, the pope flew to Barcelona to lead a prayer vigil at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium. Bad Bunny played sold out shows there last month.
