National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations and two other Indigenous representatives met with the Executive Committee of the CCCB. During a meeting in Rome with the secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, he had expressed a desire for reconciliation and a new covenant between the First Nations and the Catholic Church. The secretary, Msgr. Marcello Zago, O.M.I., suggested that he meet with CCCB President Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte and asked the Cardinal to arrange the meeting.