Rome, May 17 (LaPresse) – The New York Times reports that genealogists have uncovered that the paternal grandparents of Pope Leo XIV, from Chicago, were once arrested for "disorderly conduct" — a story that was relentlessly covered by tabloid and sensationalist newspapers in the late 1910s.
The press at the time described it as "an illicit affair" that developed into a love triangle. Newspaper articles and other public documents show that the Pope’s grandfather, Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano, was married to another woman while he was accused of having an affair with Suzanne Fontaine, who later became the Pope’s grandmother.
Mr. Riggitano and Ms. Fontaine later adopted the surname Prevost from Ms. Fontaine’s mother, forming a new family line that now leads directly to Vatican City.
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