Pope Hands Back 62 Indigenous Artifacts to Canada, Acknowledging Church’s Colonial Legacy

The Vatican insists the items were “gifts” to Pope Pius XI, who wanted to celebrate the church’s global reach, its missionaries and the lives of the Indigenous peoples they evangelized.

xVatican City: The Vatican on Saturday returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada as part of the Catholic Church’s reckoning with its role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas. Pope Leo XIV gave the artifacts and supporting documentation to a delegation of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops during an audience. According to a joint statement from the Vatican and Canadian church, the pieces were a gift and a “concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity.” The items are part of the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection, known as the Anima Mundi museum. The c