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Portraits of six African Americans who are sainthood candidates are displayed in the lobby of the Catholic Center in Baltimore in November 2023 for Black Catholic History Month. The six are: (from left top row) Pierre Toussaint, a noted philanthropist; Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence; and Father Augustus Tolton, the first Catholic priest in the U.S. known publicly to be Black. From left bottom row are Mother Henriette Delille, founder of the New Orleans-based Sisters of the Holy Family; Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American to become a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration; and Julia Greeley, known as the city of Denver's "Angel of Charity." (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Pope Leo’s Creole roots raise hopes for Black American sainthood causes 


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Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Black Catholic Ministry, Feature, Local News, News, Vatican

The election of a Chicago-born pope with Louisiana Creole ancestry is drawing attention from Black Catholics, especially after genealogist Jari Honora traced Pope Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents to New Orleans’ Black Catholic community. 

Jesuit Father Gregory Chisholm, superior of the Jesuit community at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, said the findings could influence support for Black American sainthood causes. 

A float at a 2018 New Orleans Mardi Gras parade features Mother
Henriette Delille, a Black candidate for sainthood. (OSV News photo/Peter Finney Jr., Clarion Herald)

Honora, a certified genealogist with the Historic New Orleans Collection, discovered census records identifying Pope Leo’s maternal grandparents – Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié – as Black or mulatto. His grandfather was born in Santo Domingo, Haiti (now the capital of the Dominican Republic); his grandmother was born in New Orleans. After the couple moved to Chicago around 1910, census records began identifying them as white. 

Father Chisholm, who ministered in Black Catholic parishes in California, said it was common for families with Creole heritage to “passant à blanc” – pass as white – if possible. 

“Given the situations mixed-race people faced after the Civil War and halfway through the 20th century, it was a challenge whether to identify as Black people or to eschew it and be accepted by the larger community,” he said. 

Father Chisholm’s own family traces to Savannah, Georgia’s, vibrant Black Catholic population, though he was born in New York City and raised in Harlem.  

“It’s just part of the way that things have been in our country,” he added, “that people had to make this kind of choice. It was very common for families not to acknowledge this history.” 

If Pope Leo’s family withheld this heritage from him, Father Chisholm said, “they certainly weren’t the first and they won’t be the last. It’s hard to condemn any family that would keep their racial history to themselves because our history when it comes to race is so challenging.” 

Honora hopes the discovery “will bring greater attention” to Black Catholic history and sainthood candidates, especially Henriette DeLille, a New Orleans native and free woman of color who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842. She was declared venerable in 2010. Father Chisholm said Pope Leo “would do well” to appreciate people like Henriette DeLille. “Her background is basically the same as his mother’s,” he said. 

The stories of other Black sainthood candidates may also resonate with the pope. Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence and a Cuba-born immigrant of Haitian background, was declared venerable in 2023. Pierre Touissant, born in the Caribbean, was declared venerable in 1997. Father Augustus Tolton, the first known Black Catholic priest in the U.S., also shares Pope Leo’s Chicago connection and was declared venerable in 2019. 

“Those four particularly would speak to the roots of Pope Leo,” Father Chisholm said. “There would be clear points of identity with them.” 

Adrienne Curry, director of the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Office of Black Catholic Ministries, noted that in total, there are seven Black Catholics in the U.S. currently under consideration for canonization.  

“The Saintly Seven have to go through the same process as the rest of the people up for canonization,” she said. “It has no bearing on (Pope Leo’s) heritage. I don’t know whether Pope Leo has ever addressed these sainthood candidates in his previous role.”  

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