Prime Minister Mark Carney is to leave Canada for his first official trip to the Vatican on Friday evening, where he will take part in the first trade fair for Pope Leo XIV on Sunday.
Carney is a pious Catholic, but was not able to take part in Pope Francis’ funeral on April 26 because it fell two days before the national elections.
The opening mass, which serves as a kind of fluctuation for a new Pope, attracts many international managers, and Carney is expected to hold bilateral meetings with several of them during the trip.
The Prime Minister’s office (PMO) confirmed the MPs of the Liberal Caucus, who practice Catholics or represent the great Catholic constituencies, travel with the Prime Minister.
The US Vice President JD Vance, French Prime Minister François Bayrou and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are among those who have confirmed that they are present. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also hopes to visit.
The assembly of the national chief of first nations, Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, and President of the Métis National Council, Victoria Pruden, travel with the Canadian delegation.
Pruden calls on the Anima Mundi Museum of the Vatican Mundi to return Méti’s cultural artifacts in his collection.
“We ask the Vatican to work together with Métis knowledge owners, historians and experts in order to determine which objects belong to our people in their collection and give them back,” said Pruden in a media declaration.
“These artifacts were recorded in epochs with profound injustice. Their return is an essential step to promote reconciliation and to repair the deep damage caused by colonial politics, including the role that the church played in the residential obligation.”
Indigenous leaders previously asked Pope Francis to return the artifacts. In 2023 he promised to do this, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Leo, who is still new to the role, has not yet said whether he will honor this promise.
In a speech on diplomats published on Friday morning on the Vatican, Leo confirmed the efforts of the church to reach and hug all individuals and all peoples on earth through peace, justice and truth.
“I believe that religions and interreligious dialogue can make a fundamental contribution to promoting a climate of peace. Of course, this requires complete respect for religious freedom in every country, since religious experience is an essential dimension of man,” he said.
“Without it, it is difficult, if not impossible to bring about cleaning the heart that is necessary for the structure of peaceful relationships.”
With files from Olivia Stefanovich of the CBC, the Alessia Passafiums of the Canadian press and the Associated Press
