Overview
- Pope Leo XIV handed the 62 pieces and supporting documentation to a Canadian bishops’ delegation during a Vatican audience, framing the move as a “concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity.”
- The shipment is scheduled to arrive in Montreal on Dec. 6 and will be taken to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau for condition assessment and cataloguing.
- The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops says it will transfer the objects to National Indigenous Organizations, which will oversee their return to communities of origin.
- The artefacts come from the Vatican Museums’ Anima Mundi collection and were originally sent by missionaries for the 1925 Vatican Missionary Exhibition.
- Indigenous leaders and scholars question whether the items were freely given in the 1920s and some criticize the church-to-church process, calling for direct community involvement and ceremonial returns.