(NOLA)- Pope Leo XIV acknowledged his family’s roots in both slavery and immigration in an interview with NBC News July 29.
“I come from a family that my grandparents were immigrants … [and] on my mother’s side, we have people who were both slaves and slave owners,” he said.
Pope Leo is the first Black pope, first American pope and now the first pope to acknowledge a familial connection to the Atlantic Slave Trade. He’s also almost certainly the first to have had ancestors who likely came to the Americas via the Middle Passage.
Although he was born in Chicago, the Holy Father has deep roots in New Orleans’ Creole community. His grandparents, Joseph and Louise Martinez, were originally from the 7th Ward before moving to Chicago sometime between 1910 and 1912, according to research done by the Historic New Orleans Collection.
According to HNOC Family Historian Jari Honora, before moving to Chicago his grandparents lived at 1933 N. Prieur St., which was destroyed when the I-10 was built over Claiborne Avenue as part of the anti-Black “redlining” redevelopment and highway construction era in the United States.
HNOC first reported Pope Leo’s Creole roots shortly after he became the leader of Catholic Church last year. His Chicago family has since come to New Orleans to reconnect with their family here.
It’s not entirely clear if Pope Leo knew of his Creole roots. According to HNOC’s research, upon arriving in Chicago his family claimed to be white. That was not an uncommon decision for “passe” Black people during one of several periods in American history in which attacks on Black political participation and representation by state and national politicians, the court system, the media and popular culture were common.
Pope Leo’s comments are particularly notable as they came in response to a question about what he “loves” about America. Pope Leo responded that his immigrant and Creole roots gave him a “sense of freedom, the sense of opportunity,” adding that those parts of his ancestry also demonstrate the country’s foundational promise of inviting “generations people from around the world to be part of America.”
Earlier in the interview, the Holy Father stressed he views himself as a pope “who happens to be American.”
That makes sense, given that he is not only the leader of a worldwide faith but also a spiritual leader whose basic job is to look after the welfare of all of humanity, regardless of religion.
In that way it is not unsimilar to how American politicians have viewed themselves as more than their party once they took office as a mayor, a president or a governor of a state like Louisiana, at least until the last few years when that has no longer always been the case.
In the interview, Pope Leo also said he hopes to visit the U.S. sometime in the next few years. If he decides to come before the 2028 presidential election, he would likely visit in 2027 since popes typically don’t like to interfere in national elections.
While Vice President JD Vance says he is a Catholic convert, coming to the U.S. under the current administration would be, at the least, awkward. Both Vance and President Donald Trump have been vocal critics of Pope Leo’s outspoken reminders of the Gospels’ teachings on empathy and love for outsiders like immigrants and messages of anti-violence and peace.
