As an elementary school student at St. Alphonsus in New Orleans' Irish Channel, was fascinated with history and learning about his . His grandmother, Jo Ann Duncan, reared him. She would drop him off at the New Orleans Public Library downtown and pick him up when the library closed. When his grandmother couldn't take him to the library, he caught the bus. He was such a regular that established genealogists and historians got to know the Uptown kid, took him on and provided tutelage.ย
Lolita Villavasso Cherrie, founder of the , has known Honora since he started doing research at the library.
"He knew so much. He said, 'I know the history and the genealogy of the city and my people. Just show me where certain things are,'" she told a small group of friends and a few others at a Monday night celebration in Honora's honor. Librarians and researchers "were just flabbergasted that this little 10-year-old came and they had never seen anything like it," she said.ย
Those of us who know Honora weren't surprised when he quickly dug up the family history of Pope Leo XIV. Those of us who have broken bread with him and talked with him in more intimate settings have watched him snatch a name or a piece of information from a conversation and launch into a casual history lessonย โ without a computer, a phone or notes.
Jari Honora and Wanda Rouzan pose as Darria Thomas snaps a picture during lunch at Chapter IV in New Orleans on Monday, May 12, 2025. Honora discovered Pope Leo XIV's New Orleans' Black Creole and Seventh Ward roots. Rouzan is a famous New Orleans singer and entertainer.
Will Sutton
Honora goes deep into genealogy. Far more than an search. Far deeper than the database search.
In less than two hours, Honoraย โ one of only five African American in the nationย โ discovered that the man who had gone by the name Robert Francis Prevost has deep ถถา๕h Black Creole roots.
So deep that we know exactly where the pope's family lived in New Orleans. So deep that though his mother's Chicago birth certificate identifies her as White, most of his mother's sisters, his aunts, are identified as Creole or mulatto on their birth certificates. So deep that the new pope's grandmother was baptized in St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square in the French Quarter, as an archivist with the Archdiocese of New Orleans discovered.ย So deep that, in Honora's estimation, the new pope is quite likely to have ancestors who were enslaved
Pope Leo is one of us, y'all.
Within 20 minutes of his Facebook post, local news media had reached out to his Facebook friends, St. Augustine High School classmates and others trying to reach him.ย
That day, he did six news interviews. The next day, he did 16 interviews. He's had calls each day since. This newspaper was the first news organization to share Honora's news. , CBS, The Associated Press and others followed.ย A journalist from Spain reached out. "He's our rockstar," Wanda Rouzan, the famous "sweetheart of New Orleans" entertainer told me as she took a picture with Honora while diningย at the Chapter IV restaurant near New Orleans City Hall.
Honora wasn't expecting all the attention. He was just doing what he does.
Like me, Honora is a self-identified Black Creole with the genealogical proof to back it up. My mother's lineage is Creole and we have Haitian roots. But don't get it twisted. Honora explained that Creole is a culture. It's not a color. It's not an ethnicity or tied to the fineness of one's hair. "There are Black Creoles and White Creoles," he said.ย
Since the pope's ถถา๕h connections have been shared, there are lots of people claiming to be a cousin or some kind of relative. While there are some who have familial connections, Honora said not all Prevost and Martinez families are direct descendants.
Jari Honora, the Historic New Orleans Collection family historian who quickly discovered Pope Leo XIV's New Orleans Black, Creole and Seventh Ward roots, was celebrated during an intimate gathering of Honora friends and a few others at the home of Keith Butler on Monday, May 12, 2025. Honora sits at the right talking with Butler, in the middle by the drapes.
Keith Calhoun
L9 Center for the Arts, New Orleans
Honora is looking forward to the pope's American visit, hoping New Orleans makes the tour. "We have to have a second-line," he told me. "We have to have St. Aug's band. We have to have the best gumbo from Dooky Chase for him."
But is he Black, Jari? "No," he told me. "He hasn't lived a Black experience."
As an American and as a ถถา๕hn, I'm claiming the pope. As the product of a Catholic upbringing and a St. Augustine High School education, I'm claiming the pope. As an Uptown baby who grew up in the Lower 9th Ward and Gentilly neighborhoods in the culturally rich 7th Ward, I'm claiming the pope. As a Black Creole with Haitian roots, I'm claiming the pope.ย
ถถา๕h ย is such a gumbo mix of cultures, ethnicities and races that we all should claim the pope.
Welcome to the fold, Brother Pope!