Pope's Creole roots tell a story of New Orleans

One day in June 1900, a census taker visited the New Orleans home of Joseph and Louise Martinez, Pope Leo XIV's grandparents.

- RICK ROJAS RICHARD FAUSSET

They lived on North Prieur Street, just north of the French Quarter, a neighbourhood considered the cradle of Louisiana's Creole people of colour.

Joseph N Martinez was recorded as a black man, born in “Hayti”. His wife, two daughters and an aunt were also marked “B” in a column denoting “colour or race”.

Ten years later, the census came knocking again. The family had grown — there were six daughters now. Other things changed, too: Martinez’s place of birth was listed this time as Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. And the family’s race is recorded as “W”, for white.

That simple switch, from “B” to “W”, suggests a complex, and very American, story.

For much of the 19th century, New Orleans operated under a racial system that distinguished among white people, black people and mixed-race Creole people such as the Martinezes. But by the early 20th century, Jim Crow was the order of the day, and it tended to deal in black and white, with myriad restrictions imposed upon any person of colour.

The selection of Robert Francis Prevost as the first pope from the United States and the subsequent revelation of his Creole roots have brought those historical realities to the fore — and an interview with the pope's brother John Prevost, 71, connected them to the present day.

Late on Thursday, Mr Prevost, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, told The New York Times that his brothers always considered themselves to be white. As for his mother, he said, “I really couldn’t tell you for sure — she might have just said Spanish.”