Vatican’s Artifact Return to Canadian Indigenous Groups Highlights Deep Failures and Need for True Accountability

As the Vatican prepares to return dozens of Indigenous artifacts to communities in Canada, this so-called gesture of reconciliation merely scratches the surface of a far deeper crisis. The Catholic Church’s role in suppressing Indigenous culture through its support of forced assimilation policies like Canada’s residential schools was not just misguided—it was a catastrophic assault on national sovereignty and individual identity that echoes today. When Gifts Were Anything But Voluntary The artifacts—ranging from Inuit kayaks to wampum belts and war clubs—are part of the Vatican Museum's collection, originally gathered under coercive conditions during an era marked by what historians accurately...