The genealogical findings underline the significance of Pope Leo XIV being not only the first pope from the United States, but also being the first with documented ancestral ties to Louisiana’s Creoles of color, whose community has historical ties to people of African descent.

As a Chicago-born missionary to Peru, Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — was arguably the least American of the American Cardinals. But despite his close ties to Peru, where he led an Augustinian seminary and,