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Pope Leo greets King Charles during a private audience at the Vatican, October 23, 2025. (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
By Christopher Lamb, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN
Rome (CNN) — King Charles III became the first British monarch to pray publicly with a pope in 500 years during his state visit to the Vatican on Thursday, after a bruising week back home with the continued fallout over the Prince Andrew scandal.
Beneath the Sistine Chapel’s magnificent vaulted ceiling, painted by Michelangelo, Charles and Pope Leo XIV prayed together in a special ecumenical service – a first since at least the Reformation.
The service focused on care of creation, a long-standing concern of the King’s and a topic which Pope Leo has highlighted early in his pontificate. It was presided over by Leo and the Church of England’s Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.
The sight of the first joint prayer shared by the King and Pope signals the deepening of bonds between Catholics and Anglicans – a theme of the whistlestop visit.
The King and Queen met the new pontiff for the first time since his May election on Thursday morning, following their arrival in Rome the previous evening to celebrate the holy Jubilee year, which takes place every quarter of a century.
The couple landed at Ciampino airport and were greeted by a delegation including the UK’s Ambassador to the Holy See.
The trip is being seen by both sides as a “significant moment” in reconciling divisions between the British monarchy and the papacy that go back to 1534, when Henry VIII broke with Rome and created the Church of England.
“It would be difficult to overstate the significance of this particular visit,” Rev. Martin Browne, a Vatican official who works at the department for “Promoting Christian Unity,” told CNN. He said it was the first time that a royal visit had an “ecumenical dimension,” meaning that it was focused on building unity between Rome, the Church of England and wider Anglican communion.
“A service in which both the pope and a British sovereign participate has not been experienced since long before the Reformation,” Browne explained. “Its uniqueness is underlined by the fact that it is taking place in the Sistine Chapel, inside the Apostolic Palace, with the music being led by the pope’s ‘own’ choir and two of the King’s ‘own’ choirs.”
Later, the King and Queen will take part in an ecumenical service at the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, which has historic ties to the English Crown and is home to the tomb of the apostle St. Paul, for which past British monarchs paid the upkeep. It is one of the four papal basilicas in Rome and also houses a community of Benedictine monks.
Pope Leo has approved making King Charles a “Royal Confrater” of St. Paul’s, as a “gesture of hospitality and spiritual fellowship.” In celebration of this new bond, a special throne-like chair has been commissioned by the place of worship, featuring the King’s coat of arms and the Latin motto “Ut unum sint” (“That they may be one”). It will remain permanently in the basilica for use by his successors.
The pope is also making the King and Queen a knight and dame of the order of Pius IX. Charles has himself decided to honor Pope Leo by making him a “Papal Confrater of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle” and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, an honor traditionally given to heads of state.
The state visit concludes with King Charles attending a reception at the Pontifical Beda College, a seminary which trains priests from across the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, Queen Camilla will meet six Catholic sisters from the International Union of Superiors General, who work to support female empowerment around the world, including through girls’ education.
Despite the turbulence of the past, relations between the Vatican and the British monarchy are today marked by warmth and mutual respect. The UK and the Holy See have had full diplomatic relations since 1982.
Charles and Camilla were supposed to pay a state visit to the Vatican in early April, but the trip was postponed over Pope Francis’ poor health. They continued with an official visit to Italy, visiting Rome and Ravenna in the northeast. But the royal couple were able to privately visit the ailing pontiff a fortnight before he died.
As Prince of Wales, Charles visited Vatican City on five occasions, while his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, met five popes during her lifetime.
“Yes, there are differences and divisions, some of them very deep,” Browne said. “But this (visit) is a reminder for everyone that what unites is more significant.”
Diarmaid MacCulloch, a church historian from the University of Oxford, said that while there had been some ill-informed “hype” around the King’s visit, “there is some genuine significance in the Papacy showing such formal favor” to Charles.
“It’s a nice goodwill gesture on the Vatican’s part, and goodwill gestures are always welcome,” MacCulloch said.
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