PROSPECT HEIGHTS — As Catholics reflect on the history of the papacy and its longtime headquarters at the Vatican, it might be easy to overlook that not all of the earliest popes were from Rome — three, in fact, were African.
By the end of the 5th century, there had already been three popes who were considered African because they were born in — or had ethnic ties to — the Roman province of North Africa, with its capital at Carthage in modern-day Tunisia.
The rest of this article can be found exclusively in the Feb. 11 printed version of The Tablet. You can buy it at church for $1, or you can receive future editions of the paper in your mailbox at a discounted rate by subscribing here. Thank you for supporting Catholic journalism.