Pope Leo has further fueled discussions about his heritage by seemingly acknowledging his multiracial background. The pope’s comments, made as part of a larger conversation about being an American pope, are the closest that the head of the Catholic Church has made about his family’s racial history, which has been a topic of discussion since he assumed leadership of the world’s largest religious organization.
Pope Leo acknowledges heritage of ‘both slaves and slaveowners’ in his genealogy
“I come from a family that my grandparents were immigrants. On my mother’s side we have people who were both slaves and slaveowners,” Pope Leo XIV told NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas. Leo made the comment as part of a larger conversation about being the first ever pope from the United States.
Leo’s comments about his diverse heritage represent the clearest public comments that he has made about his racial background, which has been a source of speculation since he became pope in 2025. Shortly after the Chicago-born Bishop Robert Francis Prevost was chosen to be pope, choosing the name Leo XIV, historians began researching his heritage. As Blavity previously reported, New Orleans-based genealogist Jari C. Honora documented Leo’s maternal grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, as a Creole couple of Black and/or “mulatto” racial identity, who lived in New Orleans before migrating to Chicago.
Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” followed up on this revelation and collected an extensive genealogy of Leo that he discussed in an article for the New York Times Magazine, tracing ancestors of the pope back to various locations including France, Spain, Italy, Cuba and the Quebec region of Canada. Gates identified over a dozen of the pope’s direct ancestors as classified under various terms for mixed-race individuals: “‘mulatto,’ ‘mulatress,’ ‘mulâtress créole,’ ‘free person of color’ and ‘quadroon.'” Gates also identified both enslaved people and enslavers, including Black enslavers, in the pope’s genealogy.
Pope’s background and comments highlight issues of race, identity and justice
As Word in Black noted, the pope’s older brother, John Prevost, has confirmed the initial identification of their mixed-race ancestry, though he also clarified that their family does not consider itself Black. His family’s identity reflects the evolving ways in which race and ethnicity are being reconsidered, indicating a potential shift from the “one drop rule” by which Black American identity has often been defined. “Is having a Black ancestor sufficient? Is it perception from others? Is it how you self-identify?” said Boston University sociologist Phillipe Copeland about evolving Black American identity shortly after Leo was selected as pope.
Leo’s comments to NBC, the first direct remarks that the pope has made about his racial heritage, came as part of a larger conversation about what it meant to be the first pope from the United States. “I think of myself more as the Pope who happens to be American,” Leo clarified while acknowledging the “great significance of being the first American pope.” Leo explained that he sees his mission as “having a voice and an opportunity to speak to people throughout the world.” Asked about what he loved about being American, Leo pointed to “what America stands for the sense of freedom, the sense of opportunity, the sense of having invited for generations people from around the world to be a part of America,” leading to the discussion of his own heritage. Since becoming pope, Leo has positioned himself as a champion for justice and an advocate for oppressed and marginalized people. In May, he became the first pope to directly apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church for the church’s past support for slavery. Leo has also been critical of U.S. military intervention against Venezuela and Iran, bringing him into conflict with President Trump.
Pope Leo frames his ongoing mission for global justice as an expression of his faith and a duty of his office as the highest official of the Catholic Church. But his own identity as an American and as a person with mixed-race ancestry adds a personal dimension to his advocacy, and Leo’s background positions him as a high-profile example of the ways in which questions of race and identity are changing in the United States.