Let's talk about the first black pope: Pope Leo XIV has Creole lineage, New Orleans genealogist says

[Ms. Toad]

11. That discussion is going on in another thread,

For me it is the distinction between lived experience and ancestry.

He had black/Creole grandparent who passed. They had a very different lived experience - which may well have included early experiences in a family/community in which they lived and we're perceived as black/Creole and anxiety about being found out when they later passed as white, struggle with the choices they made and how it impacted their relationships with their families (all things I have read about from first hand accounts). That is very different from being two generations removed from that experience.

I am thrilled that he has that ancestry - and for the representation it gives people is those communities - and would even love to hear him speak about how that played out in his life. I am less thrilled with people putting words in his mouth about how he perceives himself.