Pope Leo had a brief private meeting with Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny at Madrid's Bernabeu stadium as both were touring Spain, the Vatican said, adding that it did not expect to release any photos of the meeting.
According to a Vatican statement, the Pope met the reggaeton sensation, whose album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Pictures) won Album of the Year at this year's Grammys, with his family and other people. He offered them a short greeting on Monday before leaving the stadium, it added.
Leo, who drew the ire of US President Donald Trump earlier this year after criticising the Iran war, is on a week-long tour of Spain, where he has warned that escalating conflicts have pushed the world into "profound crisis".
Coincidentally, triggering Trump's anger is something the Pope and Bad Bunny, whose given name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, have in common.
The singer has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump's hardline anti-immigration policies and supported former Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, in the 2024 presidential race.
Bad Bunny headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in February, bringing Spanish language and reggaeton rhythms to the annual US football spectacle.
Trump called the show "absolutely terrible" and "an affront to the Greatness of America".
A day after the pair met, Pope Leo traveled to Barcelona where he addressed crowds in the regional dialect of Catalan.
As in Madrid, where he opened the first visit of a pope to Spain in 15 years, Leo was greeted by large crowds as he arrived at Barcelona's 14th century cathedral to preside over a midday prayer. Thousands pressed against barriers outside the church in the sunshine, waving flags and screaming "Long live the Pope!"
"Estimats germans i germanes" (Dear brothers and sisters), Leo opened his homily in Catalan, evoking the region's distinct cultural and political character.
Regional officials had been hoping the pope would speak in the language, which is widely used in schools, churches and local politics.
Catalan, whose use in public was restricted during General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, which ended in 1975, is a central part of identity in the region, which tried to secede from Spain in 2017. The independence drive has subsided since and the region is now governed by a non-separatist leader.
Leo is due later on Tuesday to meet the leader of the northeastern region of Catalonia and hold a prayer vigil with young people at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium.
The centrepiece of Leo's visit to Barcelona will be on Wednesday, when the Pope will visit an abbey in nearby Montserrat and inaugurate the newest tower of the Sagrada Familia, the modernist basilica that has become the world's tallest church.
The visit to the basilica is also celebrating the legacy of its architect, Antoni Gaudí, whose designs were mocked in his lifetime but are now being praised. A fervent Catholic who died on June 10, 1926, he is on the path to Catholic sainthood.
