King Charles and Pope Leo to pray together in historic first since 1534

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.

Officials from both the Church of England and the Vatican have confirmed that it will be the first time since the break with Rome in 1534 that a reigning British sovereign and a pope have prayed together in a church service.

The service, held under the theme “Care for Creation”, will reflect both leaders’ shared concerns for the environment and their commitments to dialogue between different faiths. It will feature the Sistine Chapel Choir alongside the Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal.

During the visit, the King will also be made a Royal Confrater of the Abbey of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, one of the four papal basilicas of Rome. The honorary title, approved by Pope Leo, carries no duties but acknowledges the King’s personal efforts to promote unity among Christians.

A seat bearing the British monarchy's royal coat of arms has been created to be placed within the basilica to mark the occasion. The abbey, which houses the tomb of St Paul, has long been associated with reconciliation and ecumenism and once maintained close links with English monarchs before the Reformation.

The Foreign Office said the visit would reinforce the UK’s “important relationship with the Holy See”, particularly in promoting peace, human dignity and environmental responsibility. The state visit, originally planned for earlier this year, was postponed due to the ill health of Pope Francis, whom the King and Queen met privately during their trip to Rome in April.

The royal audience with Pope Leo will be the first meeting between monarch and pontiff since Leo’s election following the death of Pope Francis. It comes more than 60 years after Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch since Henry VIII to visit the Vatican in 1961.

Nearly five centuries after England’s break with Rome, the image of the British monarch and the Bishop of Rome praying together is likely to stand as a quiet but unmistakable sign of healing and of the shared spiritual concerns that now unite the two representatives of kingdom and Church.

Photo: Britain's King Charles III tours The Oratory of St. Philip Neri following the canonisation of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Birmingham, England, 3 September 2025 (Photo by CHRIS JACKSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

‍