"Peace be with all of you!" - the first words of Pope Leo XIV. The…
July 30, 2026 | Black Catholic Messenger
‘Slaves and slave owners’: Pope Leo XIV speaks on his genealogy in new interview
The pontiff more fully acknowledged his family history in response to a question about his connection to the U.S. as the first American Pope.
In a new interview, Pope Leo XIV has publicly acknowledged the presence of enslaved persons—and slaveholders—among his ancestors, marking the first such comments from the first American pontiff.