Papa don’t preach: Madonna celebrates after discovering she’s related to Pope Leo XIV

We wonder what Pope Leo XIV had to say about Madonna’s use of religious imagery in the “Like A Prayer.” Especially as it now appears the two are family.

The discovery of a familial connection between the “Vogue” singer and the recently-elected Pope comes as part of a dig by The New York Times into the latter’s heritage.

The investigation found a number of things including that the Pope’s lineage is “surprisingly international” with ancestors hailing from Europe, America, and the Caribbean. Eight of the Pope’s ancestors were also slave owners, including Black slave owners.

But, perhaps most surprising, was the discovery that through a maternal ancestor born in Canada in the 1590s Pope Leo XIV is ninth cousins, various times removed, as per the NYT, to Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Justin Bieber, Jack Kerouac and Madonna.

The ‘Ray of Light’ singer celebrated the news on Instagram with an image of her and her father, Silvio Ciccone, captioned: “Strike a pose!”

It’s certainly an interesting family tree! The NYT suggests those are only a few of the well known people the Pope can be linked to. Who knows how much further it goes, as the NYT hasn’t released more information at this time.

The link between the Pope and Madonna comes with a certain amount of humour as well as irony.

Madge was criticised by the Vatican for 1989’s “Like A Prayer” which featured burning crosses and erotic images of Jesus. John Paul II, who was Pope at the time, called for a boycott of her Blond Ambition tour.

And Madonna has been rather critical of the Catholic Church herself. In 2023, she told Vanity Fair, appearing on the cover as the Virgin Mary, that she was “shocked” by the Church’s attacks on her.

“They weren’t able to understand how much my work was trying to produce something good,” she said. She also described them as “hyprocites” adding, “I quickly realised that they were the problem, not me.”

In 2015, Madonna tried to set up a meeting with Pope Francis. “I’m a good Catholic. I swear!” she tweeted at the time, adding it wasn’t “fair” that she had been “excommunicated three times”.

We hope the family reunion is “like a dream”.