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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ramon Antonio Vargas

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

People walk past a mural titled of the pope carried by the statue of liberty
People walk past a mural titled 'The American Dream', created by the Italian artist aleXsandro Palombo for Pope Leo XIV in Milan, Italy, on Friday. Photograph: Paolo Salmoirago/EPA

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.

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