The pope’s family history of “gens de couleur libre,” or free people of color, can be traced back to Opelousas, a ...

Pope Leo XIV has seen and experienced the Church in more contexts than perhaps any other person currently living...’ ...

When Robert Francis Prevost was growing up in a modest house in Dolton, Illinois, no one, not even his neighbors, imagined he ...

Pope Leo XIV made history as the first U.S.-born pontiff. It was recently revealed that he has Louisiana Creole ancestry.

Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Prevost and spent several years living in Dolton, IL, in a humble home that is now up for ...

The Catholic Church has always been central to Creole identity. The Prevosts aren’t the only ones who passed into white ...

Pope Leo XIV's background tells the story of complicated racial identities in the U.S., multiculturalism and Black Catholics ...

I share an ancestral connection with Pope Leo XIV. What does that story say about race, religion, and ancestry in America?

His story is a call to hope and a challenge to the Church in India to see finally and fully those it has failed to embrace ...

There’s no record the new pope ever identified as Black, and he may never have researched his family’s roots in New Orleans.

My mother was already on her feet, despite the ache of aging legs, gleefully watching repeated news clips about the new pope.

Being an eighth generation Louisiana Creole who’s been researching and telling the story of my people since the 1990s, ...