In a historic moment in the long journey of reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Indigenous peoples of Canada, Pope Leo XIV formally handed over 62 artifacts from the Vatican Museums to a delegation of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The artifacts, including an Inuit kayak, masks, moccasins and etchings that have been held by the Vatican for over 100 years, are to be returned to their original owners, Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

According to a joint statement from the Holy See and the Canadian bishops, the event marked “the conclusion of the journey initiated by Pope Francis.” The late Jesuit pope had met with leading representatives of Canada’s Indigenous peoples several times before he made a “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada in July 2022. There, he apologized for the church’s role in the abuse and forced assimilation of Indigenous people. In 2023, the Vatican officially repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” a collection of 15th-century papal decrees that were used to justify colonial practices.

During his encounters with the Indigenous leaders, Pope Francis promised that the artifacts would be returned to them, and on Nov. 15, his successor, Leo XIV, delivered on that promise. He did so when he received in the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace a three-member delegation from the C.C.C.B.: Bishop Pierre Goudreault, its president, Archbishop Richard Smith of Vancouver and the Rev. Jean Vézina, the general secretary. 

“It was lovely,” Archbishop Smith told America after the audience. “We sat down and talked with him about what is obviously a topic of great importance to the church in Canada, and a matter that we could see was of great importance to him, too: the question of the artifacts.”

“The C.C.C.B.’s role has really been a facilitating one, just working with the Holy See, working with the Indigenous leaders to make this happen,” the archbishop explained. Today’s event “was a particular moment in which the Holy Father formally gifted this group of artifacts to the conference of bishops so that we can carry on in our own relationships with the Indigenous Peoples, on that whole pathway of healing and reconciliation that we’ve been on for quite some time.” This journey “goes back to Pope Francis—I’d like to emphasize that; it’s really something that grew out of his heart,” he said.

He noted that the delegation of Catholic and Indigenous leaders who met Francis at the Vatican in 2022 “could see how deeply impacted Pope Francis was by what he heard from them, and that impact just deepened during his visit to Canada. He understood that the artifacts are something that are really precious to them, and when he was in Canada, he gave us bishops our marching orders to carry on. So, as universal shepherd, as head of the College of Bishops, he decided to make this gift to us so that we can continue our work with Indigenous folks.”

The principal partner of the C.C.C.B. throughout this process has been the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, which the other Indigenous groups agreed would take the lead on this. The Inuvialuit are from the Western Arctic region, where the iconic whaling kayak, which the Vatican will now return, originated.

Archbishop Smith said the C.C.C.B. is “working with our Indigenous partners as the artifacts are brought home; they’ll receive them, and obviously custody will be given to them. It’s the Indigenous leaders that are working on all the logistics of this, and we’re supporting it as best we can.”

The artifacts, which came from different First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, “are part of the patrimony received on the occasion of the Vatican Missionary Exhibition of 1925, encouraged by Pope Pius XI during the Holy Year, to bear witness to the faith and cultural richness of peoples,” the Vatican and the Canadian bishops’ conference said in their joint statement.

“Sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries between 1923 and 1925,” it said, “these artifacts were subsequently combined with those of the Lateran Ethnologic Missionary Museum, which then became the ‘Anima Mundi’ Ethnological Museum of the Vatican Museums.”

Archbishop Smith recalled seeing some of those artifacts in March 2022 when he visited the Vatican Museums with the Indigenous delegation and at the time noted two kinds of artifacts. The first kind are “those that are not clearly designated as donations” and “are part of the consignment of 62 that’s coming back to Canada,” he said. The second are artifacts “that were clearly gifts to the pope through the years. The Vatican is going to honor the will of the donor and keep them there and care for them.”

The 62 artifacts will go first to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, according to Joyce Napier, the Canadian ambassador to the Holy See. There, the Indigenous communities, their experts and elders will try to identify them and their provenance and determine where they should be kept.

“We really want to leave it to the Indigenous leaders to be the first to see them,” Archbishop Smith said. He expected the C.C.C.B. “to be invited to be with the Indigenous leaders to witness the arrival of the artifacts in Canada,” and he saw this as “another instance of our ‘walking together,’ which was the theme of the papal visit.” He added, “We’re really grateful for the way the Indigenous peoples have invited us into the whole process.”

Calling the handing over of artifacts “a milestone in the long journey of reconciliation and healing,” Archbishop Smith said: “We’re in this for the long haul, we’ve made that commitment, and we’re going to keep it. I remember Pope Francis making it very clear that we are the local shepherds, we’re the ones on the ground, we’re the ones who develop the relationships locally. So, it’s really on us to carry it forward, and we’re truly committed to do that.”

He concluded: 

I think it’s important for us to stress that it’s happening in the context of the Jubilee of Hope. This, too, I believe, was part of the thinking of Pope Francis. And this Jubilee, like previous jubilees, wants to emphasize the importance of healing relationships. So, in that context, it’s in full continuity with the pope’s intention for the Jubilee to be doing this gesture, together with his bishops, to help foster healing and reconciliation.

 Material from Catholic News Service was used in this report. 

This article appears in January 2026.

Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.