NEW ORLEANS (AP) 鈥 The new pope鈥檚 French-sounding last name, Prevost, intrigued Jari Honora, a New Orleans genealogist, who began digging in the archives and discovered the pope had deep roots in the Big Easy.
All four of maternal great-grandparents were 鈥渇ree people of color鈥 in Louisiana based on 19th-century census records, Honora found. As part of the melting pot of French, Spanish, African and Native American cultures in Louisiana, the pope鈥檚 maternal ancestors would be considered Creole.
鈥淚t was special for me because I share that heritage and so do many of my friends who are Catholic here in New Orleans,鈥 said Honora, a historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum in the French Quarter.
Honora and others in the Black and Creole Catholic communities say the election of Leo 鈥 who spent over including eight years as a bishop 鈥 is just what the Catholic Church needs to unify the global church and elevate the profile of .
A rich cultural identity
Leo, who has not spoken openly about his roots, may also have an ancestral connection to Haiti. His grandfather, Joseph Norval Martinez, may have been born there, though historical records are conflicting, Honora said. However, Martinez鈥檚 parents 鈥 the pope鈥檚 great-grandparents 鈥 were living in Louisiana since at least the 1850s, he said.
Andrew Jolivette, a professor of sociology and Afro-Indigenous Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, did his own digging and found the pope’s ancestry reflected the unique cultural tapestry of southern Louisiana. The pope’s Creole roots draw attention to the complex, nuanced identities Creoles hold, he said.
鈥淭here is Cuban ancestry on his maternal side. So, there are a number of firsts here and it鈥檚 a matter of pride for Creoles,” said Jolivette, whose family is Creole from Louisiana. 鈥淪o, I also view him as a Latino pope because the influence of Latino heritage cannot be ignored in the conversation about Creoles.鈥
Most Creoles are Catholic and historically it was their faith that kept families together as they migrated to larger cities like Chicago, Jolivette said.
The former Cardinal Robert Prevost’s maternal grandparents 鈥 identified as 鈥渕ulatto鈥 and 鈥淏lack鈥 in historical records 鈥 were married in New Orleans in 1887 and lived in the city鈥檚 historically Creole Seventh Ward. In the coming years, the Jim Crow regime of racial segregation rolled back post-Civil War reforms and 鈥渏ust about every aspect of their lives was circumscribed by race, extending even to the church,鈥 Honora said.
An American story of migration
The pope鈥檚 grandparents migrated to Chicago around 1910, like many other African American families leaving the racial oppression of the Deep South, and 鈥減assed for white,鈥 Honora said. The pope鈥檚 mother, Mildred Agnes Martinez, who was born in Chicago, is identified as 鈥渨hite鈥 on her 1912 birth certificate, Honora said.
鈥淵ou can understand, people may have intentionally sought to obfuscate their heritage,鈥 he said. 鈥淎lways life has been precarious for people of color in the South, New Orleans included.鈥
The pope鈥檚 grandparents鈥 old home in New Orleans was later destroyed, along with hundreds of others, to build a highway overpass that 鈥渆viscerated鈥 a stretch of the largely Black neighborhood in the 1960s, Honora said.
A former New Orleans mayor, Marc Morial, called the pope’s family’s history, “an American story of how people escape American racism and American bigotry.鈥
As a Catholic with Creole heritage who grew up near the neighborhood where the pope鈥檚 grandparents lived, Morial said he has contradictory feelings. While he鈥檚 proud of the pope鈥檚 connection to his city, Morial said the new pontiff鈥檚 maternal family鈥檚 shifting racial identity highlights 鈥渢he idea that in America people had to escape their authenticity to be able to survive.鈥
African American influence on Catholicism
The Rev. Ajani Gibson, who heads the predominantly Black congregation at St. Peter Claver Church in New Orleans, said he sees the pope鈥檚 roots as a reaffirmation of African American influence on Catholicism in his city.
鈥淚 think a lot of people take for granted that the things that people love most about New Orleans are both Black and Catholic,鈥 said Gibson, referring to rich , New Orleans’ jazz tradition and brass band parades known as .
He hoped the pope鈥檚 Creole heritage 鈥 emerging from the city鈥檚 鈥渃ultural gumbo pot鈥 鈥 signals an inclusive outlook for the Catholic Church.
鈥淚 want the continued elevation of the universal nature of the church 鈥 that the church looks, feels, sounds like everybody,鈥 Gibson said. 鈥淲e all have a place and we come and bring who we are, completely and totally, as gifts to the church.鈥
Shannen Dee Williams, a history professor at the University of Dayton, said she hopes that Leo’s 鈥済enealogical roots and historic papacy will underscore that all roads in American Catholicism, in North, South and Central America, lead back to the church鈥檚 foundational roots in its mostly unacknowledged and unreconciled histories of Catholic colonialism, slavery and segregation.鈥
鈥淭here have always been two trans-Atlantic stories of American Catholicism; one that begins with Europeans and another one that begins with Africans and African-descended people, free and enslaved, living in Europe and Africa in the 16th century,鈥 she said. 鈥淛ust as Black history is American history, (Leo’s) story also reminds us that Black history is, and always has been, Catholic history, including in the United States.鈥
Hope for the future
Kim R. Harris, associate professor of African American Religious Thought and Practice at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said the pope’s genealogy got her thinking about the seven who have been recognized by the National Black Catholic Congress, but haven’t yet been canonized.
Harris highlighted Pierre Toussaint, a philanthropist born in Haiti as a slave who became a New York City entrepreneur and was declared 鈥淰enerable鈥 by Pope John Paul II in 1997.
鈥淭he excitement I have in this moment probably has to do with the hope that this pope’s election will help move this canonization process along,鈥 Harris said.
While it’s not known how Leo identifies himself racially, his roots bring a sense of hope to African American Catholics, she said.
鈥淲hen I think about a person who brings so much of the history of this country in his bones, I really hope it brings to light who we are as Americans, and who we are as people of the diaspora,鈥 she said. “It brings a whole new perspective and widens the vision of who we all are.鈥
Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, the only historically Black Catholic university, said he was 鈥渁 little surprised鈥 about the pope’s heritage.
鈥淚t’s a joyful connection,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t is an affirmation that the Catholic Church is truly universal and that (Black) Catholics remained faithful regardless of a church that was human and imperfect. It also shows us that the church transcends national borders.鈥
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Bharath reported from Los Angeles.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
