US EditionBuckingham Palace announcement as King set to make history in days
King Charles and Pope Leo XIV will pray together publicly for the first time since the Reformation and discuss environmental and sustainability initiatives, Buckingham Palace said.
- From October 22 to 23, King Charles, Sovereign of the United Kingdom, and Queen Camilla, Queen Consort, will visit the Vatican to meet Pope Leo XIV and pray publicly, the first such monarch–Pope prayer since the Reformation.
- As 2025 is a Jubilee Year, the visit reflects themes of nature and sustainability, with Buckingham Palace saying the trip is a significant moment between the Catholic Church and the Church of England.
- The visit's programme includes a private audience at the Apostolic Palace, visits to the Papal Basilica and Abbey of St Paul's Outside the Walls, engagements at Pontifical Beda College, and Queen Camilla meeting choirs and six Catholic sisters while viewing Michelangelo frescoes.
- Buckingham Palace said the visit will mark Their Majesties' first meeting with Pope Leo XIV since his election in May 2025, and Vatican officials said the Royal Confrater title "confers no duties or obligations" and does not change King Charles's constitutional role.
- Historically, the visit recalls Henry VIII's break with Rome and follows over a hundred years of warmer UK–Vatican relations, with a special chair in the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls.
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29 Articles
King Charles and Queen Camilla put on united front as they arrive in Rome for Vatican state visit
The King and Queen arrived in Rome on Wednesday for their state visit to the Vatican, where they will meet Pope Leo and make history as the first British monarch since the Reformation to pray publicly with the leader or the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIV and Charles III will pray together in the Sistine Chapel | Vatican | United Kingdom | Pope Leo XIV
King Charles and Pope Leo XIV to Pray Together in Historic Ecumenical Moment at Vatican
Jordan Pettitt/AFP Britain’s King Charles III stands with Britain’s Princess Michael of Kent (left); Britain’s Prince Michael of Kent (second left); Britain’s Lord Frederick Windsor; Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales; Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales; Britain’s Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh; and Britain’s Princess Anne, Princess Royal, following a Requiem Mass for the late Katharine, Duchess of Kent, at Westminster Cathedral in Lond…
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