New Pope Has Creole Roots in New Orleans

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/pope-leo-creole-new-orleans.html

New Pope Has Creole Roots in New Orleans
His ancestry, traced to a historic enclave of Afro-Caribbean culture, links Leo XIV to the rich and sometimes overlooked Black Catholic experience in America.
By Richard Fausset and Robert Chiarito
May 8, 2025 Updated 10:24 p.m. ET

Robert Francis Prevost, the Chicago-born cardinal selected on Thursday as the new pope, is descended from Creole people of color from New Orleans.

The pope’s maternal grandparents, both of whom are described as Black or mulatto in various historical records, lived in the city’s Seventh Ward, an area that is traditionally Catholic and a melting pot of people with African, Caribbean and European roots.

The grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, eventually moved to Chicago in the early 20th century and had a daughter: Mildred Martinez, the pope’s mother.

The discovery means that Leo XIV, as the pope will be known, is not only breaking ground as the first U.S.-born pontiff. He also comes from a family that reflects the many threads that make up the complicated and rich fabric of the American story.

The pope’s background was unearthed Thursday by a New Orleans genealogist, Jari C. Honora, and confirmed to The New York Times by the pope’s older brother, John Prevost, 71, who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

“This discovery is just an additional reminder of how interwoven we are as Americans,” Mr. Honora said in a text message late Thursday. “I hope that it will highlight the long history of Black Catholics, both free and enslaved, in this country, which includes the Holy Father’s family.”

...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIV

Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neigborhood of Chicago, Illinois, to Mildred (née Martínez) Prevost, a librarian, and Louis Marius Prevost, a United States Navy veteran of World War II and superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois.[8][9][10][11][12] His father was of Italian and French descent. His mother was the daughter of Louisiana Creole parents, Joseph Martínez from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,[13] and Louise Baquié from New Orleans, who were of African, French, and Spanish descent. Martínez was of mixed Afro-Haitian descent, and Baquié was a mixed-race Black Creole.[11][14][15][16] Prevost has two older brothers, Louis and John.[11]