He conclave of 2025, the meeting held by the Cardinal College of the Roman Catholic Church to choose a new Pontiff after the death of the Pope Francisconcluded last Thursday, May 8, when the cardinal Robert Francis Prevost He was chosen by his colleagues in the fourth vote, around 10 hours of Guatemala.
At the time of being chosen as Pope, Robert Prevost adopted the name of Leo XIV And, according to the choice of their name and first steps as the high pontiff, experts consider that Francisco’s successor “seems to be registered in a form of reassuring restoration of tradition ”in the Vatican City.
The Holy Father of 69, born on September 14, 1955, It did not appear among the main Favorites to become the new Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Given this situation, various doubts have begun to emerge about their ethnic origin, especially in relation to their cultural characteristicslinguistic and even historical.
It is known that Pope Leo XIV was born in the American city of Chicago, Illinois. However, as usual in that American nation, its inhabitants constitute a mixture of different cultures that converge and They migrate constantly to the territory of the United States, so Robert Prevost is not the exception.
The ethnic origin of Pope Leo XIV
American Robert Francis Prevost is the son of Louis Marius Prevost, Catechist of Italian origin, and Mildred Agnes Martínez, library of Spanish descent. However, the maternal grandmother of Pope Leo XIV, Louise BaquiéIt was a Creole of Louisiana of French and African descent, born at the end of the 19th century.
The Louisiana Creoles They are the inhabitants of the United States who were direct descendants of the inhabitants of the Colonial Louisiana, both in its French control period (from 1682 to 1763) and in the Spanish control (from 1763 to 1804), when the territory was sold to the US authorities after independence.
Read more about Pope Leo XIV: Robert Prevosts was a conservative or liberal cardinal?
Given the circumstances, the Holy Father born in the Wind City It has predecessors of Italy, Spain, France and some country African that has not yet been identified. For that reason, Prevost’s physical features do not correspond to the main characteristics of the Englishwho gave independence to the US.
The Pontiff Leo XIV is currently distinguished by having a shared sense of identity, ancestry and even language, because, as a cardinal, Robert Prevost proved to speak Spanish, Italian, English and Latin. However, for the moment it is unknown if the Pope can communicate in Frenchthe language of his maternal grandmother.
On the other hand, in addition to having an extremely varied ancestry, the American Pope Leo XIV has nationality Peruviantaking into consideration that it was sent to Peru In 1985 as part of his mission with the St. Augustine’s Hermite Order, where it served in the cities of Piura, Chulucanas, Trujillo and Chiclayo.
In that country, Robert Prevost was parish vicar, diocesan officialseminary and administrator professor, until Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Chiclayo in 2015, the year also acquired Peruvian nationality. Therefore, the current Supreme Pontiff shares customs and traditions of the South American nation.
Here is the day Francisco appoints Robert Prevost, today Pope Leo XIV pic.twitter.com/hzBL39Clry
– Sebi Schurman (@sebischurman) May 8, 2025