Pope Leo XIV has begun the process of returning 62 artefacts to their Canadian Indigenous communities of origin.

On Saturday morning, the Pope received Bishop Pierre Goudreault, Bishop of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), accompanied by Archbishop Richard Smith, Archbishop of Vancouver, and Fr. Jean Vézina, General Secretary of the CCCB, at the Apostolic Palace.

During the meeting, the Pope gave the CCCB 62 artefacts which had been kept in the ethnological collections of the Vatican Museums.

Following the late Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey to Canada in 2022, his various audiences with indigenous communities, and publication of the Declaration on the Doctrine of Discovery in 2023, the Church said Pope Leo "desires that this gift represent a concrete sign of dialogue, respect, and fraternity".

According to the joint statement of the Holy See and the CCCB, the transfer of the items to the Canadian Bishops - for the purpose of returning them to their communities - is an act of ecclesial sharing.

The artefacts, coming from different communities, were 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 said.

Sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries between 1923 and 1925, the artefacts were subsequently combined with those of the Lateran Ethnologic Missionary Museum, which then became the "Anima Mundi" Ethnological Museum of the Vatican Museums.

Pope Leo XIV's return of the items takes place in the context of the Jubilee of 2025, which also marks the centenary of the Vatican Missionary Exhibition.

These artefacts, accompanied by information in the possession of the Vatican Museums, which certifies their origins and the circumstances of their transportation to Rome for the 1925 Exhibition, have now been given to the CCCB.

The Canadian Bishops affirmed that they, in a spirit of authentic cooperation and dialogue with the Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Vatican City State, are committed to ensuring that the artefacts are properly safeguarded, respected, and preserved.

"The CCCB will proceed, as soon as possible, to transfer these artefacts to the National Indigenous Organisations (NIOs). The NIOs will then ensure that the artefacts are reunited with their communities of origin," the Canadian bishops said.