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King Charles III and Queen Camilla will make a state visit to meet Pope Leo XIV for the first time at the Vatican next month, Buckingham Palace has said.
The trip in late October will come about six months after the royal couple visited Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, shortly before his death in April.
During the coming trip Charles – head of the Church of England – and Camilla would join Leo in celebrations to mark the current jubilee year, held every 25 years, the palace statement said.
“The visit will also celebrate the ecumenical work by the Church of England and the Catholic church, reflecting the jubilee year’s theme of walking together as ‘pilgrims of hope’,” it added.
The royal couple’s state visit to the Holy See will make a trip they had been forced to cancel in April because of Francis’s failing health. They were able to see the pontiff for a private meeting, becoming one of the final dignitaries to see him before his death at 88 a couple of weeks later. Charles, 76, and Francis shared a passion for protecting the environment.
Francis died after 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, and Leo was elected in a conclave of cardinals in May. Leo, 70, who has a history of missionary work in Peru, is the first pope from the US.
The royal couple’s four-day trip to Italy in April had been thrown into doubt by the king’s own health scare. Charles was briefly admitted to hospital on 27 March after experiencing temporary side effects from the treatment for his cancer, which was announced last year.
The king had previously visited the Vatican on five occasions as Prince of Wales, and has met three popes.
He was received by Francis during visits to the Vatican in 2017 and 2019, and by Benedict XVI in 2009. He met John Paul II during his visit to Britain in 1982 and attended the Polish pope’s funeral at the Vatican in 2005.
As Church of England head, King Charles leads the mother church of global Anglicanism. The church was established in the 16th century by Henry VIII, the king who broke with the Vatican over its refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
The split fuelled centuries of ensuing conflict, but in modern times relations between the Catholic church and the Church of England – often referred to as the Anglican church – have been amicable.
With Reuters
