In prior interviews, Pope Leo XIV said he was open to a vocation to the priesthood because neighborhood priests were always in and out of his childhood, as his mother often fed them. "Now we know why her cooking was so good— both her mother and father were from New Orleans.

This is like a reward from God,” a local parishioner said, as researchers unearthed more details about the lives of Leo XIV’s ancestors in the heart of the city’s Afro-Caribbean culture.

When Father Tony Ricard watched the new pope deliver his first address to the faithful Thursday in St. Peter’s Square, he felt an instant kinship.