DONNA SAGNA, 50, gets up as early as 6:30 in the morning to go outside and observe the traffic on her street. On this sunny spring Saturday morning, a speaker in her window is pumping out of church sermon as tourists stop and stare at a tiny 3-bedroom house next door.

It’s the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV, who before he made world history as the first American pontiff to head the Catholic Church, lived as Robert Francis Prevost in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb in Chicago that became predominately Black in the 1980s after Whites moved out.

A half a mile away is Saint Mary Church in Chicago where Prevost worshiped and went to school.

With its large Catholic population, Chicago, the birthplace of gospel music, was once the center of a powerful Black Catholic Movement that swept the nation.

It’s where the world’s first Black priest settled and where the first Black cardinal was born.

Now, the city known for its rich Black history and its 770,000 Black residents, has bagged the biggest achievement of all: the first American pope, whose Chicago and Creole roots is the talk of the town.

An examination of the pope’s ancestry reveals his Creole and African roots in New Orleans, a city that’s 926 miles south of Chicago.

“Prevost,” is common name in Louisiana and has a strong Creole connection in the pope’s maternal ancestry, according to the Historic New Orleans Connection. 

Hours after Prevost was elected the first American pope on May 8, the Jari Honora, a family historian with the Historic New Orleans Collection began researching the pope’s roots because of Prevost last name.

“I did not expect to find a Creole connection,” Honora said. “I was expecting to find a French-Canadian connection.”

Honora said after discovering the pope’s roots, he posted the findings on Facebook.

Honora said soon after, journalists from the New York Times called him before they broke the story. Since then reporters across the globe have spoke with him, some in person he said.

According to Honora, Pope Leo XIV’s grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié lived in New Orleans Seventh Ward, whose historic residents are African, Caribbean, European and Catholic. A marriage certificate shows they were married in the Seventh Ward in 1887.

A 1990 Census record lists Martinez birthplace as “Hayti” and his race is listed as Black. So does his obituary on Find a Grave website. But on Martinez’s birth record, his birthplace is listed as the Dominican Republic, which shares the island with Haiti.

Baquiex’s native city is listed as New Orleans on her birth record. The 1870 Census lists her as “mulatto.”  But in 1880 Martinez and his entire family were listed as white.

According to the Historic New Orleans Collections, Prevost family moved to Chicago between 1910 and 1912.

“It’s an American story of reinventing oneself,” Honora said during a telephone interview. “It was no fault of their own of not acknowledging their roots. They were limited by their race.”

The pope’s brother, John Prevost confirmed records showing the maternal side of Pope Leo XIV’s family can be traced back to at least the 1840s among “free people of color” in New Orleans, though he clarified in various news reports that his family does not identify as Black.

According to her Cook County birth certificate, the pope’s mother, Mildred Agnez Martinez, was born in Chicago in 1912.

Creole people are mixed race individuals whose roots can include European, French, Caribbean and Haiti lineage.

Many Black Chicago residents who moved from the South during the Great Migration, moved to the city from Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. 

Historians say Creole is in the blood of many races, but the topic is not often openly talked about among White individuals. 

Louisiana was once a slave state in the Confederate, where Blacks and White plantation owners had intimate relations, creating mixed races. Many Blacks in America, are called mulatto because of their light skin that allows them to pass for White.

Some like Sherry Williams, a Chicago Black historian, are doing their own research on a man whose maternal grandfather was born in Haiti.

Today, Williams is in disbelief that Pope Leo XIV’s was born just a mile from her office in Chicago, a metropolis that was founded by a Haitian fur trader and Catholic, Jean Baptiste Du Pointe DuSable.

As this story was being written, Williams was in the process of obtaining Pope Leo XIV’s birth certificate from Cook County’s Bureau of Vital Records in Chicago.

“This is fascinating information about the pope’s Creole roots,” Williams said. “How can you not be excited about this piece of history in the pope’s background? And the fact that he’s from Chicago makes it even more interesting.”

On September 14, 1955, Pope Leo XIV was born at Chicago’s oldest hospital, Mercy Hospital the city’s predominately Black Bronzeville neighborhood, where Williams serves as founder of the Bronzeville Historical Society.

At the time, Bronzeville was a thriving neighborhood in Chicago with jazz and blues singers and musicians who imported their sound and culture from Black cities like New Orleans, Louisiana and Memphis, Tennessee.

In Chicago, Pope Leo XIV’s Creole and African roots have stirred conversations between Black Catholics and Blacks in the city.

One of them is Desiree Booker, 74, for the past three years has been researching her roots during Williams’ ancestry class on Chicago’s South Side. Booker said the pope’s roots have been talked about in the class of about 11 adults.

 “It just proves what we’ve been finding out. At some point, our people have been able to flip over to the other side,” Booker said.

“The records don’t lie. That’s the bottom line. Whether or not he embraces that side is another thing. We’ve been just laughing about it. We find a little humor in it. But we know about the circumstances that led people to hide their roots.”

While visiting the pope’s childhood church, June Brunette, 74, said she thinks Pope Leo’s XIV’s Creole, Black and Chicago roots are “awesome. “I think it’s awesome,” she said. It’s God’s way of providing divine justice.”

Peggy Montes, 88, a Catholic who owns a Black children’s museum on Chicago’s South Side, took offense to the media’s focus on the pope’s ethnic roots. She’s more excited about the American pope being from Chicago.

“What’s the point of focusing on his roots?” Montez said. “We all have some mixture in our blood. They (the media) need to cut that out. It’s great that he’s from Chicago though.”

Some Blacks like Sagna are more excited about the pope being a Chicago native. Black Catholics in the city say it’s a refreshing change to embrace a pope who makes them feel closer to an institution that has a history of allegations of racial discrimination.

“We prayed and prayed for this. Now to see this is just a miracle for me,” said Sagna, who attends St, Sabina Church, a parish on the city’s South Side that’s led by the charismatic Father Michael Pfleger, a white priest whose community activism on urban issues has built a loyal predominately Black congregation.

Thirteen miles away from Father Pfleger’s church is Dolton, a Black village of over 21,000 residents. In Dolton, Sagna is busy greeting tourists and waving at drivers who come to see the pope’s childhood home next door to her house.

“We live in an area where there’s a lot of poverty, a lot of crime,” Sagna said. “I know God definitely answers prayers. We prayed and prayed for peace.”

With 2.7 million residents Chicago has deep ties to Catholicism.

In Chicago politics, the Daley family dynasty includes two Irish Catholic mayors, Richard J. Daley and his son, Richard M. Daley, served led the city for a combined 43 years.

America’s third largest Archdiocese, the Archdiocese of Chicago serves over 2.1 million Catholics in 290 parishes in the city and the surrounding suburbs.

Today, about three percent or 6,000 of those Catholics are Black but in 1975, it was 81,000 according to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

In addition to the Catholic faith, its culture and values have long played a significant part in the lives of its Black residents, perhaps more than any major American city.  

Many Blacks converted to Catholicism during the Great Migration, a period when over 600,000 Blacks traveled to America’s northern cities for better economic opportunities.

After their conversion, many Black Catholics in Chicago experienced racism in White parishes and many weren’t allowed to worship there.

They filled White established parishes on the city’s South Side after Whites fled neighborhoods as Blacks moved in during the Great Migration.

That period saw an explosive growth of Black Catholics on Chicago’s South Side, where the region became the center of the Black Catholic movement that swept America during the 1960’s.

In Chicago, the world’s first Black Catholic Priest, Augustus Tolton, led a parish on the South Side.

Cardinal George Wilson Gregory, who participated in the Conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago’s predominately Black Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. In 1957 George Clement, who was born in Chicago, became the world’s second Black priest. 

Those individuals help fuel a powerful Black Catholic movement with dozens of flourishing parishes and private schools in Chicago. St. Elizabeth, Holy Angels, Holy Name of Mary, St. Columbanus, are among the many Catholic institutions that educated thousands of Blacks in Chicago for decades.

Many of these students went on to become influential Chicago politicians, civic leaders, doctors, journalists, athletes and actors.

Though they grew up Catholic, some leaders aren’t devout Catholics as adults, and some have left the faith altogether for personal reasons.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of the popular ‘Bridgerton’ series on Netflix is a Black Catholic from the Chicago area. Former White House Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers, who lives in Chicago, is from New Orleans and attended a Catholic school.

She is also a descendant of a Creole Voodoo priestess, according to a Wall Street Journal story in 2009.

Another Chicagoan, Actor Harry Lennix, who starred in the movie “The Five Heartbeats,”is Catholic whose father was Creole from Louisiana.

In media, the owners of Chicago’s 85-year-old Black newspaper, the Chicago Crusader (Dorothy R. Leavell) and the historic Black radio station WVON 1690 (Melody Spann Cooper) grew up Catholic and attended Catholic schools.

“Catholic schools were part of everyday life in Black Chicago,” said Perri Small, a retired popular WVON radio who was educated at Catholic schools.

Small said her mother, taught at Hales Franciscan High School, the first Catholic high schools for Black boys in the country.

Chicago’s predominantly Black Catholic Leo High School on the South Side, was established in 1923 in honor of Pope Leo XIII, whom Pope Leo XIV admired because of his concern for the poor and opposition against slavery.

The private Catholic school that has over 200 students, is still operating today. On May 12, the school held prayer service to honor Pope Leo XIV. 

“Throughout its history, Leo has shared his commitment to justice, fairness and the dignity of all people,” Daniel McGrath from the school’s Theology Department said. “Pope Leo XIV’s presence at the head of the Church will be a daily reminder that we here at Leo must honor that commitment, always.”

School officials celebrated when they learned Prevost took the name Pope Leo XIV.

“I’m not saying anyone in this room can become Pope,” Dr. Shaka Rawls, a Leo alumni said. “But anyone in this room can achieve greatness once they decide what they want to do and lock in on it.”

Father Pfleger said: “If a boy from the South Side of Chicago can grow up to become one of the most powerful figures in the world, boys who are currently growing up on the South Side should follow his example by setting their goals high and never be dissuaded from achieving them.”

After the pope was born at Mercy Hospital in 1955, he lived with his parents and two older brothers at a home at 212 E 141st Place in Dolton.

The house is between two houses that are owned by Blacks.

Recently, Dolton city officials announced plans to take possession of the pope’s childhood home by either eminent domain or purchasing it at a planned auction.

Kareem Davis, 49, Sagna’s husband, said. “This is something good for the community. We have hope now because you have kids living here.”

Around the corner is Pope Leo XIV’s church. He worshipped at the St. Mary of the Assumption Parish and went to the elementary school that remains on the campus. The church, school and rector are in severe disrepair after the parish was closed in 2012.

Today the church where Pope Leo XIV worship is gutted. A gaping hole remains in the roof, allowing the sunlight and the elements to enter the structure.

Joe Hall, a Black Chicagoan who grew up Catholic, owns the property after buying it from an auction in 2020. The property is located on the border of Chicago and there is talk of restoring the structure and designating it as an official Chicago landmark.

“We’re still processing the pope’s connection to this church. We’re going to preserve as much as we can and continue helping build this neighborhood.

“I grew up in the Archdiocese. I went to Catholic school at St. Thomas the Apostle. I knew the significance of electing a new Pope was.”

After visiting the pope’s childhood home around the corner,  Carole Haymond, 76, visited the shuttered the St. Mary of the Assumption Parish that’s across the street from a Black funeral home.

“I thought it was well kept,” Haymond said about the church. “It’s small. It’s nice. We met a man from Slovakia at the pope’s house. He said he came because he said when Pope Leo XIV was cardinal, he came to their church.”