King Charles III will next week become the first British monarch since the Reformation to pray publicly with the Pope when he visits the Vatican for an official state visit with Queen Camilla.
The royal couple will meet Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace on Thursday, 23 October, during a visit timed to coincide with the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year. The King and the Pope will take part in an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel, where they will pray together beneath Michelangelo’s ceiling in a gesture meant to symbolise five centuries of progress towards Christian reconciliation.
