I find this fascinating.
I live about an hour and a half from New Orleans and knowany faithful Catholics here of Creole descent.
I hope this gives that population a well deserved recognition and boost.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/us/pope-leo-creole-lineage-hnk
Pope Leo XIV’s grandparents on his mother’s side lived in New Orleans before they migrated to Chicago, where his mother, Mildred Martinez Prevost, was born in 1912, said Jari C. Honora, a family historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection who shared his research and records with CNN.
Leo’s maternal grandparents, Joseph and Louise Martinez, are listed as Black in a Census record from 1900. Joseph is recorded as a cigar maker born in “Hayti.” The Census record shows the couple as living in New Orleans’ 7th Ward, historically a melting pot of cultures in the Crescent City.