These sacred artifacts belonging to Canadian Indigenous tribes are in the Vatican: Now they’ve asked Pope Leo XIV to return them

As Pope Leo begins his life as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, he will have to decide how to fulfill, or ignore, the promises made by his predecessor, the late Pope Francis.

In some cases, the stakes are high. Pope Francis promised Indigenous people in Canada that artifacts taken from their peoples centuries ago by missionaries would be returned to them, as a token of good faith and restorative justice.

What artifacts does the Vatican hold?

Hidden within the confines of the Vatican are precious cultural relics that the tribes are eager to see returned.

In 2022, the Canadian news outlet, CBC, reported that Indigenous leaders believe that within the Vatican’s collection are “a human face mask from Haida Gwaii, a rare kayak from Inuvialuit in western Arctic, a pair of beaded skin moccasins, engraved etchings on birch bark and a model of a dog sled made of walrus ivory and sealskin.” However, a full catalogue has never been provided.

The Truth and Reconciliation process between Canada’s Indigenous people and the Roman Catholic Church

A Truth and Reconciliation process between the Catholic Church and the Indigenous people of Canada has been ongoing for more than a decade. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops published a short and relatively muted history of the involvement of the church in the residential schools for indigenous children. Though they claim that some students have positive experiences, they do not shy away from the dark past that these schools represent for thousands who passed through their doors.

“While many former students have spoken positively of their experiences at specific schools, many others speak today of far more painful memories and legacies, such as prohibitions about Aboriginal languages and cultural practices as well as cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse,” explains the church.

Residential schools in Canada became mandatory for Indigenous children in 1894, and the last school closed its doors in 1997.

With students who passed through those schools still alive, they are a modern example of the horrors inflicted by the church on Indigenous communities that go back centuries.

Government estimates indicate that the number of children who passed through this system is approximately 150,000. For decades, Indigenous leaders had called attention to the thousands of children who had died as a result of poor treatment and disease, and over the last ten years, unmarked graves have been discovered on some of the sites. In 2021, the BBC reported that 715 unmarked graves were found at the site of a residential school that had been run by the Roman Catholic Church between roughly 1899 and the 1980s. Earlier this year, the Canadian government ended funding for the program that supported Indigenous communities in continuing to search these sites.

Pope Francis’ promise to Indigenous leaders

As part of the reconciliation process, Pope Francis met with Indigenous leaders during his visit to Canada in 2022. During this visit, he promised to return the artifacts in the church’s possession.

A year after he visited Canada, Pope Francis was asked about plans to return the artifacts. The Holy Father responded that his faith guided him in the decision. He highlighted the seventh commandment, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ and emphasized that if one has stolen, they ”must make restitution.” He mentioned that the Church and the Canadian government were in agreement that the artifacts needed to be returned. However, two years later, nothing has been received.

In 2024, two years after the visit, then-Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau met with Pope Francis in the Vatican. The former Canadian PM posted on X that the two had talked about the reconciliation process and that he had “advocated for the next step” to expedite the return of “cultural artefacts from the Vatican to Indigenous Peoples in Canada.”

Indigenous leaders renew their calls

In mid-May, a few days after the papacy of Pope Leo began, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) of Canada renewed their call to see their artefacts returned by the church’s new leader. Bobby Cameron, the Chief of FSIN, explained that the return of the artifacts is a critical part of the reconciliation and healing process.

“Every single one of those artifacts are sacred items there, crucial for the healing journey for many residential school survivors,” said Cameron.

So far, there has been no word from the Vatican on Pope Leo’s plans to make good on the promises made by his predecessor.

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