Taking up a viral gesture, exchanging with the superstar Bad Bunny or even multiplying winks at football fans, Pope Leo XIV, aged 70, is carrying out a seduction operation aimed at young people during his visit to Spain.
The scene made the rounds on social networks: standing aboard his popemobile in Madrid and Barcelona, the pope repeats the “six-seven” gesture, with a smile on his lips, in front of an amused and slightly surprised crowd.
This viral phenomenon from the United States, born last year on TikTok from a song by rapper Skrilla, has since spread like wildfire, particularly among young people.
They swing their shoulders, gesture with their hands as if they weigh something, and say out loud in English "six-seven".
Leo XIV also distinguished himself by briefly speaking privately on Monday evening with Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny.
Coincidentally, the pope and the singer were in the Spanish capital at the same time, a coincidence which made Leo XIV say on board his plane en route to Spain that the young people could hesitate between the two of them.
- "Moments of spontaneity" -
“If they find themselves faced with the question of whether they want to see Bad Bunny or whether they want to see the Pope, I think many will go to see Bad Bunny,” he said: “But I also think there will be some who will come to see the Pope. And that means something.”
“He clearly seeks to address young people,” observes Elise Ann Allen, an American Vatican expert who published a biography of this pope, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago.
But she also thinks that the sovereign pontiff, despite the weight of protocol, also indulges in simple "moments of spontaneity", as when he told journalists that he supports Real Madrid... and not FC Barcelona, his great Spanish rival.
During his flight from Madrid to Barcelona, the Pope spent part of the journey in the cockpit, visibly delighted, greeting through the window a fighter plane which was escorting the aircraft.
And when one of the pilots told him that he was a supporter of Real Madrid, whose players wear white jerseys, Leo XIV smiled: "I'm all in white. In Barcelona, you have to be careful."
“It’s just the pope who remains himself,” summarizes Elise Ann Allen.
On several occasions, Leo (AI).
During a lunch in Madrid, Leo obsolete answer, referring to its predecessor
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