Pope Leo Comes Face to Face With His Black Family Tree

Henry Louis Gates Jr., who hosts the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” said he handed the pontiff a copy of his family tree.

Pope Leo XIV has been presented with a physical copy of his family tree, which features some Black relatives.

The news comes after The New York Times reported that Leo, born Robert Prevost in Chicago, had mixed-race and Black grandparents from New Orleans on his mother’s side of the family.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., who hosts the series Finding Your Roots on PBS, has since visited the Vatican alongside his wife, the historian Dr. Marial Iglesias Utset, to present the American pope with a physical copy of his lineage.

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Gates wrote Thursday on Facebook that he and his wife were “granted the profound honor of a private audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican” on Saturday.

“She and I had worked with an outstanding team of researchers to publish it in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and were deeply grateful for the chance to walk His Holiness through the branches of his family tree, sharing stories of his ancestors back to his 12th great-grandparents who were born some 500 years ago,” he wrote.

“This was one of the most meaningful and deeply moving moments of our lives.”

The PBS host also confirmed that Leo is related to Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Justin Bieber, and Hillary Clinton, among other notable names, albeit nine times removed.

Gates also found that some of Leo’s ancestors were enslavers, while others were enslaved.

Leo, 69, was born in 1955 and raised on the south side of Chicago. He has not publicly addressed his racial identity.

His brother John suggested to The New York Times that his siblings do not identify as people of color.

The National Catholic Reporter stated that Leo’s maternal grandfather, Joseph Martinez was born in Haiti, and his maternal grandmother, Louise Baquié, was Creole and a native of New Orleans.

A Vatican biography of Leo, who was elected in May after Pope Francis’ death, said he is the son of “Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent.”

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