Pope Leo is related to Madonna, Justin Bieber: NY Times
In an article written by Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, The New York Times has discovered that the Chicago native is related to Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Angelina Jolie, Hillary Clinton, Justin Bieber, Jack Kerouac and Madonna.
The American pope is connected to them through a Canadian ancestor named Louis Boucher de Grandpre, who was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, according to the New York Times.
Leo's Canadian family ended up coming to the United States within a century, the paper reports, many settling in New Orleans, one of America's great melting pots.
New Orleans was founded by the French in 1718 and became part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Its strategic location on the Mississippi River lent to a diverse cultural heritage with Creole, Cajun, French and Spanish influences.
In another discovery, the New York Times says the pope has ancestors from Louisiana who were mixed race and were known to have enslaved other Black people.
John Prevost, the pope's brother, told the New York Times he and his brothers didn't discuss their Creole roots and did not identify as Black.
Pope Leo was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955. He was elected leader of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, making history as the first American pope.
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