Summary and Commentary by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
A man’s politics usually have a lot to do with his family history, and while the sins of one’s grandfather do not pass down to grandsons, in the case of Cardinal Prevost, neither did the grandfather’s surname.
The story is highly explosive.
Cardinal Prevost’s real surname is Sicilian: Riggitano
His real paternal Grandfather, Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano, was born at Milazzo, Sicily on June 24, 1876. I know Milazzo well, having visited it 3 times, since it is the birth place of my mother’s maternal grandparents. It is also very near to the birth place of the grandparents of President Biden’s wife, who was born in a little village up-slope from Milazzo.
But Prevost’s grandfather was not of the same cloth. According to Milazzo town hall, Riggitano married before he left Italy. But when he arrived in the United States in 1904, as he claimed in 1940, he declared the name Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano Alioto. — Alioto means a man from Ali, a small village in the province of Messina, the same province as Milazzo. — He then changed his first name to John, to avoid discrimination, which as an Italian-American I can testify to, even if none of my relatives changed their names to avoid it.
Grandpa Riggitano was an adulterer, and perhaps also a bigamist
Ten years later, he married a woman named Daisy Hughes in 1914. Then three years later he had an affair with a Louise Marie Fontaine, whose maternal grandfather was a Mr. Prevost. In 1917, in the U.S.A. adultery was a crime, so after being arrested for adultery, and released, Riggitanto fled with his girl friend and abandoned Daisy. He then married Suzanne under the name Jean Prevost, in New York State, to avoid being charged with bigamy.
And that surname, Prevost stuck. In fact the father of the Cardinal has a birth certificate which claims that Jean Prevost was born in France. His two sons born under that name, therefore, are technically bastards, or illegitimate. His grandfather might have committed sacrilege by being married the third time in a Catholic Church. But he is certainly guilty of falsifying a Birth record, if he used the name Jean Provost without going to a civil court to have it legally changed.
The Riggitano-Prevost Family has a shaky claim to be good Catholics
To say that Prevost came from a good Catholic family is going to be hard to sell. The reality is that he is the grandson of a bigamist, con-artist and adulterer and document fraudster. Can we wonder what his morals are, or if he has personal reasons to support ‘Fiducia supplicans’ or ‘Amoris laetitia’? I think we have more than a right to do so!
Riggitano might be a Jewish Surname
The surname Riggitano means “a man from Reggio di Calabria“. However, surnames which name cities in Italy, are highly suspect, because they are usually used only by Jews. Salvatore and Giovanni are very very common names in the province of Messina. Reggio is the major port on the very tip of the toe of the boot of Italy. It was the cross roads of the Mediterranean. Many Jews fleeing the Ottoman Empire came through that port.
In fact, in this video a female Jewish rabbi discuss Jews who resided and passed through Reggio. So at last we might know why Prevost as soon as he was selected pope issued a message to world Jewry. This rabbi has a page identifying Reggio as a Jewish colonized town. However, this Rabbi exaggerates because before 1492, only 2-3% of the population of Sicily was Jewish. She says 50%.
What was Riggitano doing in his home town of Milazzo?
From this article it is known that Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano is the son of Santi Riggitanto and Maria Alioto, who married at Milazzo in 1853 and lived in Via Ottaviana in the heart of the seaside town, which is built on the sand-neck connecting a small mountainous island with the adjacent mainland. — This means that they were neighbors of my mother’s paternal grandfather, Natale De Flavia, who lived in the same quarter and was a chef. Small world, indeed.
Santi and Maria had 11 children, the last of which was the notorious grandfather of Cardinal Riggitano-Prevost, who before emigrating to the United States of America in 1904, worked in the Italian Courts as a clerk, where he probably came to understand how easy it was to fake documents and names.
When Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitanto entered the U.S.A., he must have known he was not being entirely truthful when he declared his name as Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano Alito, adding his mother’s surname and dropping his third name to confuse the records, or so he claims in 1940, when he registers as a foreign alien. It is still not certain if he ever became an American citizen.
Sicilians who were poor had one first name and one last name, as I can testify in the history of my own maternal ancestors. Having several names was a sign of wealth or a pretension to wealth. But getting a job in the Italian Court system in the 1890’s likely meant that you have political connections and/or were a member of a local Masonic Lodge, not to mention a good education. It was a good job, and so if he emigrated, one wonders if he might have been caught forging documents in Italy and escaped overseas to avoid discovery or arrest.
His family had to be upper middle class, at the least, to have had 11 children and afford educating their youngest. To make a comparison, my Sicilian grandfather never learned to read or write, having gone to work at 8 in a barbershop and remained in that profession all his life, emigrating legally at the age of 14 and never playing games with his name.
Was Riggitano part of the Sicilian Mafia in Chicago?
Playing games with names is something criminals do, though it is common also among Jews, who change their gentile names for many reasons, since these are not their real names anyhow.
In 1898, six years before Riggitano emigrated, there was a big trial of Mafiosi at Palermo, as the new Kingdom of Italy began to try to control the problem. The Sicilian Mafia were known to bribe officials in court. The 1890’s saw the Sicilian Mafia extend to New York City, New Orleans and Chicago, all cities tied to the history of the Riggitano-Prevost family. Coincidence, or not?
When Riggitanto, now Jean Provost, settled back in Chicago in the 1920’s, he moved to Little Sicily, the Sicilian Quarter, which was run by the Genna Crime Family, Sicilian Mafia.
The reason I mention the Sicilian Mafia in Chicago, is because it is known that the Gay Ecclesiastical Mafia hails out of Chicago, even though they are predominantly Irish, not Italian.
But the Genna Gang was an ally of Al Capone, who ran the brothels where Archbishop Marchinkus visited as a young man before he went to seminary, and he took those connections to the Vatican where they eventually got control of the Vatican Bank. They ended up building the Mafia of St. Gallen up by getting them promoted under Pope John Paul II. So is it a total coincidence that Prevost succeeds Bergoglio? or are we looking at the ongoing Mafia control of the Vatican?
However, living under a fake name of Jean Provost, would without a doubt have made Grandpa Riggitano ripe and susceptible to blackmail, an easy way for assets to the Mafia to be recruited.
To give you an idea of just how systemically corrupt the Chicago area is, take a look at this report, which shows that the Dolton area, where Robert Provost grew up was a hotbed for corruption:
UPDATE: May 23, 2025
After a large number of scholars have collaborated more details have come forward about Riggitano and family:
+ + + + + + +
The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
+ + +
This fund was started by Ordo Militaris Catholicus, an international relief organization founded by Br. Bugnolo and AJ Baalman. Click the image for more information.
+ + +
Editor, check all dates on comments. I think 1976 should be 1876.
Thank you.
Thanks! I am old enough to have acquired the habit of writing 1976. It was a good year for historical reinactments. I remember watching the Battle of Portsmouth, RI, and seeing the English Brig in Narraganset Bay firing it’s canon in support of the Red Coats.
In 1976 I too could write, and also remember what an eventful year it was. The Tall Ships csme to New York. I boarded the Italian naval ship the Amerigo Vespucci. Still have the t-shirt. Not a hole in it. My daughters are shocked. “Wow, Daddy, they really made things well back then.”
Just this past Saturday another Tall-Ship, the Mexican naval trainer Cuauhtemoc visiting New York was swept into the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset as she was trying to leave town and head up to Iceland. Incompetence of the N. Y. City harbormaster which had its own pilot commanding the ship; and/or engine failure as the ship was running in reverse backward straight toward the Brooklyn Bridge, the harbor tug standing helpless by. Two fatalities, young cadets riding the yards. Twenty or more persons injured. After crashing into the brdge the ship also scraped the shore.
I saw her the next day with three split masts docked up river, on Sunday morning—on my way to the T. L. Mass in Brooklyn—Mexican flag still attached to the rigging, sadly upside down.
The Bridge (which we crossed) was none the worse for wear.
Best analysis (and video) of the allision by former merchant mariner Captain Sal Mercogliano here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlRiauatEo&pp=ygUPc2FsIG1lcmNvZ2xpYW5v
The Cuautehmoc was here, like the Anerigo Vespucci before her half a century ago for the Bicentennial and Op-Sail, scouting for the SemiQuinCentennial or 250th celebration next July 4th. I trust, and I am fully confident that she will be repaired by then and present for the celebrations and I will go to board her.
“However, this Rabbi exaggerates because before 1492, only 2-3% of the population of Sicily was Jewish. She says 50%.”
The Rabbi may be right under the theory that large number of Jews were converted Carthaginians and Phoenicians. This theory explains why you suddenly could find so many Jews in Spain and in Maghreb as well as the fact that from the Old testament landlubbers they became skilled merchants.
And Sicily had significant Carthaginian population.
Carthage was destroyed in the 3rd century B. C., a long long time before this. But yes in North Africa many natives converted to Judaism from the 2nd to 10th centuries.
Yes, Carthage as a state was destroyed but Punic culture and Punic blood stayed there a long time. Basic symbol of Baal like “hand” became hamsa, the hand of Fatima etc. And let us remember that Baal was the main opponent of Yahwe.
It is noteworthy that this Genna crime family came from Marsala, the ancient Carthaginian stronghold named Lilybaeum in Latin.
If antipope Prevost has this Punic blood as well – well, it would fit in the story, so to say.
This article is so full of fantasy. I don’t know where to begin. First off, Salvatore Riggitano never lived in Little Italy in chicago. He lived with his wife Daisy in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago (near Evanston) even after the scandal broke in 1917. He and his wife were living together in the 1920 U.S. census at 1718 W Greenleaf ave, which is available online for any researcher to view and to check. He was a linguist who taught romance languages out of his office in downtown Chicago and had a number of wealthy clients that he tutored. Divorced from his wife Daisy in New York state? Where is your evidence since American genealogists have been searching for any divorce record. It makes your whole article suspect that you have no citations for your research. You have simply borrowed elements of the story and built on it to smear the new Pope who of course, has no responsibility for his ancestors. Did you choose your ancestors, Sir?
Tom I see you are a new commer to FromRome.Info, where the sources are the links to the images in the article. So I am simply summarizing those sources. I never said he was divorced, so I really doubt you read my article. As for the Census records of 1920, they are not guarantees that the persons named lived there, only that such a declaration was made. So Daisy could have claimed him to be living there, without knowing where he was. Also, I never claimed that a Riggitano lived in Dalton, bc by that time he was using the name Prevost, as the articles cited claim. My article in English is predominantly a summary of the Italian articles quoted in the article, that is why the by-line says, “Summary and Commentary”. FromRome.Info being a journal predominantly for Italian Americans, I often translate and summarize articles from Italy which are only available in Italian. As for my commentary, I specifically state that he appears to be a bigamist, which means married to two women at the same time. So where you got the idea that I said he got a divorce, I do not know, maybe you were reading another site and commented here on the wrong article.
Still you statements of so-called facts are not born out by the evidence. The 1920 Census has him listed as Salvatore Riggitano. In 1930, the Chicago Daily News reported that he was to present a program on Italian literature on the radio station WMAQ under his given name Salvatore G. Riggitano. His wife Daisy Hughes did re-apply for U.S. citizenship in Chicago in June 1927 (we have her documents) after she lost U.S. citizenship by marrying her husband who was an immigrant alien. Under the 1907 Expatriation Act she could not petition for her citizenship status UNTIL she had divorced her husband (who we know never finished the naturalization process that he started in 1920. Again, he and Daisy were living at husband and wife at least until 1923 (Chicago City Directory online). Presently a group of researchers in the U.S. are awaiting a search of the Cook County court records for the divorce case entry. You also don’t understand how the U.S. census was taken. After the divorce, Riggitano moved with his French born mistress to Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago where he dutifully raised his sons along with their mother. Hardly something to be ashamed of. They remained as husband and wife (we’re still searching for a marriage record) until Riggitano’s death in my hometown of Evergreen Park in 1960. He is buried in the same cemetery with my parents and grandparents. So you claim he was a bigamist, but there is no evidence yet of a second marriage. So at most he was a man who had an affair with another woman while already married. That is not the definition of bigamy. And I can assure you he was never involved with the Black Hand or the Sicilian mafia…a claim that is beyond ridiculous. You should correct your article.
My article is merely a summation of reports and speculation. I am free to speculate and you should read the U.S. Bill of rights. Obviously my article was citing sources available on May 18, so to claim that it is incorrect or in error or needs to be corrected, is simply false, since here at FromRome I chronicle events and news. I never changed the claims of facts or laws in old articles, because that is part of the historical record of what was known at that time. As for your claims you offer no evidence nor any news report, so everything you say could be a total lie. But I thank you for stopping by. The fact that my week old article enrages you, is also part of the historical record. As for the charge of bigamy, when you change your name and live with someone for more than 1 year, in English common law, the union becomes a de facto marriage. So the charge of bigamy for a man who did this for neigh 40 years is valid and not false, because he himself claimed and presented himself as being married to Suzanne, so much so that even his grandsons did not know the truth. So he was the first to call himself and act like a bigamist. And that is sufficient evidence to call him a bigamist.
AS for saying that a man who dumped his wife and lived in adultery had nothing to be ashamed of, you have let out of the bag the entire reason for trolling my article.
That is why you troll FromRome, instead of trolling Wikipedia, where they refute your claims on the substance.
Dear brother,
A wild speculation: knowing the habit of globalists & satanists to hide their kids in “foster” families*, have you inquired if prevost’s brothers are such in biological terms?
In my opinion, the resemblance is not strong enough.
* See e.g. Taylor Swift… LaVey.
Riggitano most likely has no Punic blood. The island of Sicilia is names after its ancient Italic/Pro-Italic people called the Sicles. The Greeks being a seafaring people colonized the seacoast towns Zancle/Messina , Syracusa,Gela,Agrigento,Selinute,
Segesta, etc. The Carthaginians settled in Trapani, Marsala, and Palermo and never penetrated further to the East in Sicily. After the First Punic War (264 B.C.), The Romans took control of Sicily. Thus, those whom spoke ‘Latin’ came to the Island. But, Greek coexisted with Latin speakers. By the 8th Century A.D. the Muslim Berbers of North Africa (ie modern Tunisia & Libya) invaded the Island. In 1061-1091 A.D. the Normans under Roger I. In 1266 A.D., the Angevin Kings of France gained control of Sicily under Charles I. In 1282 A.D. the Aragonese (East Coast of Spain) came to Sicily until 1492 A.D., when it merged with the Kingdom of Castile and expelled the Conversos from Sicily.
Thus, Riggitano if from Milazzo would be Sicle, Greek, Roman, French,Aragonese or Converso from North Africa via Southern Spain . If from Reggio d’Calabria would be Greek, Roman, French, Converso from North Africa via of Southern Spain.
Queen Isabella of Castile and her Husband King Ferdinand of Aragon expelled only Converos from Spain, whom converted to Catholism to hide the fact they were Jews. Where as the Real Sephardic Jews of Spain that didnot convert to Christianity and remain Hebrew in Religion were left alone. 100% of the Converso fled to North Africa. So, to be under the Protection of the weakened Caliphate of Morocco.
http://www.bestofsicily.com/history1.htm#people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_southern_Italy
https://www.great-sicily.com/post/the-angevin-civilization-in-sicily
http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art180.htm
Dear GreyBeard,
Incorrect on a limited expulsion of Conversos. Isabel & Ferdinand expelled them all.
“Oppressed by vexatious laws and abhorred by the people, whom they ruined with their usury, perverted, and scandalized with their sacrileges, [all the Jews] were finally expelled from Spain by the Catholic Sovereigns, who regarded them as dangerous to the religious unity and the security of the country on account of the relations which they maintained with the Moors.”
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14169b.htm