Pope Leo XIV has delved into his family history, revealing his ancestry included both enslaved people and slave owners.
“I come from a family that my grandparents were immigrants,” the first American pontiff told NBC news in the Vatican Gardens of Castel Gandolfo on Wednesday. “On my mother’s side, we have people who were both slaves and slave owners.”
Leo spoke about his family’s historical links to the transatlantic slave trade on Wednesday in response to a reporter’s question about his American heritage.
Asked what he loves about his homeland, the pope also said he highly values the United States’ “sense of freedom, the sense of opportunity” and “of having invited for generations people from around the world to be part of America.”
The importance of welcoming new arrivals is a message the Chicago-born pope has repeatedly sent to the US, as he has criticized the “inhuman” treatment of immigrants during the Trump administration’s crackdown.
