Pope Leo XIV made history as the first pontiff to be born in the United States, and now researchers have been looking into his family tree seeing who is he related to.
Researcher at the New York Times took a deep dive into the Pope’s ancestry and found a few interesting people he is distantly related to including pop singer Madonna!
The singer is not the only distance cousin who has a high profile, he’s also related to former Canadian Prime Ministers Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Angelia Jolie, Jack Kerouac, Justin Bieber.
It’s more than six degrees of separation though, to make the link the researchers had to go back to a shared maternal ancestor born in Canada in the 1590s.
Madonna celebrated the discovering, posting an image to her Instagram account this week that showed her with her father Silvio Ciccone. “Strike a Post! Silvio! We’re related to the Pope!” Madonna wrote over the image.
The singer’s work has often drawn upon her Catholic upbringing and a times she’s angered the Vatican with her provocative performances.
This month Madonna’s father Silvio celebrated his 94th birthday. Fans have gotten to know Silvio over the decades through his appearances in documentaries about the singer, most notably Truth or Dare: In Bed With Madonna where he comes to see her perform on her Blonde Ambition World Tour.
Silvio worked as engineer for many decades but later retired to a vineyard. Madonna’s mother, who she was named after, died at the age of 30 from breast cancer. Silvio was left with six children to care for.
Silvio later married the family’ housekeeper Joan Gustafson, the family’s housekeeper. They went on tow have three more children, but sadly their third child died of a rare heart defect shortly after birth. Sadly Joan passed away last year at the age of 81.
