Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

Pope Francis Brings Indigenous Artifacts Back To Canada

The Vatican has returned 62 indigenous artifacts to Canada, 100 years after they were taken from tribes to appear in a 1925 missionary exhibition in Rome that displayed over 100,000 items from cultures around the world. Pope Francis gave the items to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on Saturday, with plans to return them to their original native communities, describing the gesture as “a concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity” following his historic 2022 apology to Canada’s First Nations for the church’s role in the residential schools programme. Among the treasures coming home is an Inuit kayak historically used to hunt whales in Canada’s far north and a set of embroidered gloves from the Cree Nation, items that had been held in the Vatican Museum’s ethnographic collection known as the Anima Mundi museum.

The artifacts were taken to Europe during a time when Canadian law and Catholic decrees prohibited native spiritual practices, leading to a ban on certain ceremonial items, though the church has characterized them as “gifts” from tribal leaders despite the obvious power imbalance at the time. During Pope Francis’s “penitential pilgrimage” across Canada in 2022, when he offered apologies to local tribal leaders, the communities requested the return of their sacred items. The tribes have prepaid the cost of repatriation and plan to hold ceremonies before the artifacts can be officially returned after their December 6th flight from Rome. Canada’s Foreign Minister praised the move as “an important step that honours the diverse cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples and supports ongoing efforts toward truth, justice, and reconciliation,” marking a powerful moment when sacred items torn from their communities a century ago finally begin their journey home.

PrevPreviousThe Blood Robots That Sound Like Pure Science Fiction
NextWhat Scientists Saw Off Mexico Coast Had NEVER Been Seen BeforeNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Artists And Creators Celebrate As OpenAI Shuts Down Controversial AI Video Platform Sora

March 25, 2026

OpenAI announced Tuesday it is shutting down Sora , its AI video-generation app that had become one of the most controversial platforms in the recent AI boom. “We’re saying goodbye to Sora,” the company posted on X. Since its launch as a standalone app in September 2025, Sora had been

Read More
Happy News

The Monarch Butterfly Population Just Jumped 64 Percent

March 25, 2026

Every winter, millions of monarch butterflies make one of the most extraordinary journeys in the natural world, traveling up to 2,800 miles from Canada and the United States to cluster on oyamel fir trees in the mountains of central Mexico, their wings blanketing the forest in a sight unlike anything

Read More
Happy News

She Beat Cancer And Then Adopted A Hawk

March 25, 2026

When the first Covid lockdown arrived, most people tried baking sourdough or following along with an exercise video. Candida Meyrick did something rather more unusual: she adopted a Harris Hawk fledgling, and the decision changed her life in ways she is still discovering. Candida, who had come through breast cancer

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.