The Vatican on Saturday returned 62 artifacts linked to Canada's Indigenous peoples to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Pope Leo handed over the items during a meeting with the delegation, led by conference president Bishop Pierre Goudreault.
A joint statement called the transfer "a concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity."
The artifacts were originally sent to Rome by Catholic missionaries for a 1925 exhibition under Pope Pius XI.
They later formed part of the Missionary Ethnological Museum before joining the Vatican Museums in the 1970s.
The Vatican maintains the objects were gifts to Pius XI.
Indigenous advocates dispute this, pointing to coercive conditions during colonial-era assimilation policies.
Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has termed these policies "cultural genocide."
Confiscated items included those used in banned rituals, such as the 1885 potlatch prohibition.
The bishops pledged to transfer the artifacts promptly to National Indigenous Organizations.
These groups will oversee repatriation to original communities.
The items, including an Inuit kayak, wampum belts, masks and weapons, will first arrive at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, for provenance research and safeguarding.
Repatriation efforts gained traction after 2022 visits by Indigenous delegations.
The late Pope Francis issued an apology for the church's role in residential schools during those meetings.
Delegates inspected Vatican holdings and requested returns. Francis endorsed repatriation where appropriate.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand praised the move as supporting truth, justice and reconciliation.
The Canadian ambassador to the Holy See described it as historic.
The handover coincides with the Holy Year and the centenary of the 1925 exhibition. It follows the Vatican's 2023 repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.