People have been left stunned after learning that Pope Leo is related to an iconic A-list celeb.
After the death of Pope Francis last month, aged 88, many were left wondering who would replace him in the important role as head of the Church.
On May 8, it was revealed that a replacement was chosen as Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69 – who’s papal name is Pope Leo XIV – making him the first American pope in history.
Now, as the 267th man to take on the role, the internet has been scouring his history – including his family tree.
Henry Louis Gates Jr who has hosted PBS’s Finding Your Roots looked into Pope Leo’s history. While working with genealogists at American Ancestors as well as the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, they looked way back to his 12th-great grandparents that were born in the 1500s.
There, they discovered that Pope Leo is actually related to none other than Madonna.
A distant maternal relative of his, born in the 1590s, means that Pope Leo is ninth cousins, various times removed, with Madonna.
The internet was baffled by the news, with one person taking to X: “Wait, Pope Leo XIV is actually a distant relative of Madonna?! That’s such a wild and iconic connection , like, royalty meets pop royalty? I’m obsessed with this tea.”
Someone else wrote: “Papa don’t preach but her distant relative does.”
A third shared: “this is just so random, like two completely different vibes.”
While a fourth penned: “how distant though? distant like they can’t kiss because its weird distant? or like 10th cousin distant?”
As it turns out, Pope Leo is also related to Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Justin Bieber and Jack Kerouac.
The internet also went wild, scouring Pope Leo’s previous tweets, one of which read: “As Trump & Bukele use Oval to Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident, once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC Aux +Evelio asks, ‘Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?’”
It was also reported by The Independent, thay Prevost shared: “There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages. This is being carried out in our name and the shame is on us all.”
He had also hit out at JD Vance, after resharing an op-ed from the National Catholic Reporter called: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
The name in reference to comments made by Vance in February on Fox News: “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.
“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.”
Responding to this, Vance told The Independent: “I’m sure [Pope Leo] he’s going to say a lot of things that I love. I’m sure he’ll say some things that I disagree with, but I’ll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all.”
Now, it seem Vance has messed up once more when meeting the pope on May 18. The men shook hands and shared a few words before Vance put his arm out to gently pat the pope on his elbow – a move that has angered many online.
One person commented that this was a clear sign of ‘disrespect’ while another shared that it was ‘almost condescending’ and like ‘patting a puppy’s head before moving along’.
A third shared online that: “J.D. Vance embarrassed himself again at the Vatican when he attempted to pat Pope Leo XIV on the shoulder like a drinking buddy in St. Peter’s Basilica after the papal inauguration mass.”
Watch the exchange below:
There are several rules when meeting the pope, including addressing him as ‘Your Holiness.’ and only when spoken to – not touching him unless invited to do so, such as a hand shake.
