Pope Leo XIV returned 62 artifacts to Canadian indigenous communities during an audience with representatives of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) at the Vatican on 15/11. A Vatican statement noted, "He hopes this gesture serves as a concrete sign of dialogue, respect, and fraternity."

These artifacts, part of the Vatican Museums’ ethnographic collection, were sent to Rome by missionaries from Canada between 1923 and 1925 for the 1925 Missionary Exhibition.

Pope Leo XIV presided over a prayer service on 12/11 at the Vatican. Photo: AFP.

The CCCB announced it would transfer the artifacts to national indigenous organizations, which will then return them to communities for preservation, celebration, and cultural restoration.

In 2022, during Pope Francis's penitential pilgrimage to Canada, representatives of indigenous communities requested the Vatican return artifacts holding cultural and spiritual significance for them.

At that time, Pope Francis also issued a historic apology for decades of abuse in Church-run residential schools for indigenous people in Canada, describing these actions as a "genocidal crime."

Thanh Danh (According to AFP)