Pope Leo’s grandfather was immigrant from Sicily, genealogists reveal

Robert Prevost’s maternal grandparents came to US from Caribbean and at one point identified as Black

Evidence that the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV’s bloodlines reflect the US’s legacy of immigration – and complicated relationship with race – has continued to emerge since he recently became the first American ever elected to lead the Roman Catholic church.

The family history service Ancestry recently announced that a team helmed by senior genealogist Kyle Betit had determined Leo’s paternal grandfather, John R Prevost, immigrated to the US from north-eastern Sicily.