AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald says an upcoming Indigenous delegation to the Vatican has been postponed.
The trip was planned in hopes of seeing the Pope travel to Canada in return and deliver an apology for the role the Catholic Church played in operating the residential school system.
Archibald says the delegation planned to travel to Rome the week of Dec.18, but that has been postponed because of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Archibald said the health and well-being of selected delegates, their families and communities is paramount. No details on when the trip would be rescheduled.

Thieves made off with a piece of an expensive fence from the historic Mohawk Chapel in Brantford.
The protective barrier was temporarily installed over the summer to defend agains arson threats following the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools across Canada.
Chair of the Mohawk Chapel committee, Barry Hill, told Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council on Monday that staff were relocated and the temporary barriers brought in after threats were seen on social media to attack the chapel.
That barrier has since been removed and security cameras installed.
Hill told the council that the Chapel is an important part of the community’s search for unmarked student graves connected to the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School — and said the site needs to be protected.
Councillors recommended that the chapel consider a permanent security fence around the property to protect the historic site.

Six Nations has pushed back the return to classrooms for students on-territory.
Director of Federal Schools, Travis Anderson, made the announcement in an open letter to parents on December 1.
Ohsweken Public Health, the Elected Council and Anderson reached a consensus to postpone the re-opening of Six Nations Federal Schools to full-time, in-class learning to January 10, 2022.
The schools were previously slated to resume in-class learning for December 6.
The original recommendation for that return to class date came from the incident management team on the Six Nations Emergency Control Group, which was created last year to respond to the pandemic.
However prior to the scheduled return date Six Nations experienced an outbreak of Delta variant driven COVID-19 cases that caused officials to consider holding off a return to class until the new year.
The re-opening plan has a number of Covid-safety protocols in place, including continued masking, dividers during lunch and close-proximity teaching, and a continued online academy for those who choose to continue to learn remotely.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada says a stretch of shoreline on Manitoulin Island in Ontario is now protected land.
The non-profit organization says the 76 square kilometre parcel is one of its largest single-property acquisitions in Ontario to date — protecting 18.5 kilometres of shoreline on Manitoulin Island, on the north channel of Lake Huron.
Esme Batten, the organization’s midwestern Ontario program director, says the conservation of Vidal Bay protects habitat for the animals and plants that depend on it.
Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault says protecting and conserving more of Canada’s natural beauty is an important part of the government’s plan to address “the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.”
The Vidal Bay property connects with adjacent conservation lands to form a protected area of more than 248 square kilometres of forests, wetlands and shoreline _ the largest of its kind south of the Canadian Shield.