It turns out, the newly appointed Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost) has an astonishingly celebrity-ridden family tree.

Madonna has found herself unexpectedly linked to the Vatican—this time not through controversy, but through family. According to a new New York Times report by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., the singer is a distant relative of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV.

The phrase "Like a Prayer" has taken on a whole new significance for Madonna, as a recent discovery has revealed a surprising family connection to the Pope. In a collaborative article between The New York Times,