{"id":3803,"date":"2025-11-15T20:36:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T20:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/11\/15\/vatican-returns-62-items-taken-from-indigenous-communities-in-canada\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T20:36:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T20:36:33","slug":"vatican-returns-62-items-taken-from-indigenous-communities-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/11\/15\/vatican-returns-62-items-taken-from-indigenous-communities-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican returns 62 items taken from Indigenous communities in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Pope Leo gifts the objects to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops after meeting their representatives.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p data-start=\"394\" data-end=\"670\">The Vatican has handed back 62 Indigenous artefacts to Canada\u2019s Catholic bishops, framing the move as \u201ca concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity\u201d after years of pressure from Indigenous communities seeking the return of cultural heritage removed under colonial rule.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"394\" data-end=\"670\">The items were formally transferred on Saturday during a meeting at Vatican City between Pope Leo and representatives of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, including its president, Bishop Pierre Goudreault.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/4\/1\/pope-francis-apologises-for-deplorable-residential-school-abuse\">Canada: Pope Francis apologises for residential school abuses<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2021\/3\/29\/freda-huson-an-indigenous-warrior-for-the-next-generation\">Freda Huson: An Indigenous \u2018warrior\u2019 for the next generation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2020\/5\/1\/how-did-we-become-enemies-racism-and-reconciliation-in-canada\">\u2018How did we become enemies?\u2019: Racism and reconciliation in Canada<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2020\/3\/17\/canada-and-the-first-nations-a-history-of-broken-promises\">Canada and the First Nations: A history of broken promises<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p data-start=\"394\" data-end=\"670\">The bishops said they would pass the artefacts \u201cas soon as possible\u201d to Canada\u2019s National Indigenous Organisations, which will then oversee their return to their communities of origin.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1063\" data-end=\"1658\">The objects were sent to Rome nearly a century ago for a vast 1925 Vatican exhibition curated by Pope Pius XI, who sought to display the reach of Catholic missions and the cultures they encountered. Many pieces later became part of the Missionary Ethnological Museum before being absorbed into the Vatican Museums in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1063\" data-end=\"1658\">The Vatican maintains the items were \u201cgifts\u201d to Pius XI.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1063\" data-end=\"1658\">But <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/9\/30\/canada-national-day-truth-and-reconciliation-spurs-calls-for-action\">Indigenous groups<\/a> and historians have long disputed that claim, arguing that such offerings could not be deemed voluntary in an era when Catholic missionaries held immense influence over Indigenous lives.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"cultural-genocide\" data-start=\"1063\" data-end=\"1658\">\u2018Cultural genocide\u2019<\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"1660\" data-end=\"2114\">In those years, Catholic religious orders were helping to enforce the Canadian government\u2019s forced assimilation policy of eliminating Indigenous traditions, which Canada\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called a \u201ccultural genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1660\" data-end=\"2114\">Part of that policy included confiscating items used in Indigenous spiritual and traditional rituals, such as the 1885 potlatch ban that prohibited the integral First Nations ceremony. Those confiscated items ended up in museums in Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as private collections.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1660\" data-end=\"2114\">Momentum for the objects\u2019 return grew after the late Pope Francis met Indigenous delegations in 2022 and delivered a historic apology for the church\u2019s role in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/longform\/2025\/2\/7\/denying-our-truth-fighting-residential-school-denialism-in-canada\">residential schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2116\" data-end=\"2564\">During that visit, Indigenous leaders viewed several items in the Vatican\u2019s collection, including wampum belts, an Inuit kayak, masks and weapons, and requested their return. Francis later said he supported returning such objects \u201cwhere it\u2019s necessary to make a gesture\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2566\" data-end=\"3010\">The Vatican\u2019s handover marks a century since the 1925 exhibition that first brought the items to Rome.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2566\" data-end=\"3010\">A joint statement from the Vatican and the Canadian bishops described the transfer as \u201can act of ecclesial sharing\u201d, adding that Canada\u2019s Catholic leadership is committed to ensuring the artefacts are \u201cproperly safeguarded, respected and preserved\u201d until they are reunited with their rightful custodians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Leo gifts the objects to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops after meeting their representatives. The Vatican has handed back 62 Indigenous artefacts to Canada\u2019s Catholic bishops, framing the move as \u201ca concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity\u201d after years of pressure from Indigenous communities seeking the return of cultural heritage removed under &#8230; <a title=\"Vatican returns 62 items taken from Indigenous communities in Canada\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/11\/15\/vatican-returns-62-items-taken-from-indigenous-communities-in-canada\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Vatican returns 62 items taken from Indigenous communities in Canada\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}