Pope returns 62 Indigenous artifacts in reconciliation bid

THE Vatican on Saturday returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada, a historic restitution that is part of the Catholic Church’s reckoning with its role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas.

- 

Pope Leo XIV gave the artifacts, including an iconic Inuit kayak, and supporting documentation to a delegation of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is expected to return them to individual Indigenous communities. A joint statement from the Vatican and Canadian church described the pieces as a “gift” and a “concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity.” The items were part of the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection, known as the Anima Mundi museum. The collection has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader mu