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Robert Francis Prevost has been making headlines since being announced as the first American pope, but did you know he has a personal connection to our city? Jari C. Honora from the Historic New Orleans Collection discovered, just hours after the papal announcement, that the pontiff’s maternal grandparents were Creoles of color from the Seventh Ward.
Molly Reid Cleaver, senior editor at HNOC, writes that “Now known as Pope Leo XIV, the new pontiff is not only the first American pope; he is the first Creole pope, with New Orleans African American ancestry thanks to his maternal grandparents.:
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– Staff report, The New Orleans 100