King Charles to Break a 500-Year-Old Royal Tradition With Pope Leo During Upcoming Vatican Visit
King Charles and Queen Camilla are set to embark on a state visit to Vatican City on October 22. The trip will mark the King and Queen’s first meeting with Pope Leo XIV since his appointment in May 2025. Buckingham Palace announced that the Pope and the King will pray together in an ecumenical service at the Sistine Chapel, with Charles attending a service at St Paul’s. In doing so, Charles and Pope Leo will become the first monarch and pontiff to pray together at a public service since the Reformation, over 500 years ago.
Charles and Camilla’s state visit will see a series of services symbolizing the good relations between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. Detailing the events of the day, the Palace posted on their website, "In the first such occasions in many centuries, the Pope and The King will pray together in a unique ecumenical service at the Sistine Chapel, and His Majesty, accompanied by The Queen, will attend a further ecumenical service in the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls." They also emphasized that Charles, being the Supreme Governor, reflects on the Jubilee year’s theme of walking together as 'Pilgrims of Hope.' Marked every 25 years, the Jubilee Year is a special year of remission of sins, spiritual renewal, and celebration called by the Pope.
As the statement notes, reigning monarchs have traditionally avoided praying publicly with the pontiff since the 16th-century Reformation. For over 500 years, political and religious tensions following King Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic Church meant that sovereigns refrained from such acts of ecumenism. By praying alongside Pope Leo, Charles aims to bridge a division between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, signaling a new era of interfaith cooperation between the two churches. The King and Queen were initially set to visit the Vatican in April, but postponed it due to the late Pope Francis’s frail health.
The two-day visit will see Charles and Camilla meet Pope Leo in the Apostolic Palace, followed by an audience with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The Palace added, "Following the visit to the Holy See, in a historic step, His Majesty, accompanied by Her Majesty, will also visit the Papal Basilica and Abbey of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. His Majesty has agreed to the suggestion that he become 'Royal Confrater' of the Abbey." The King will also attend a reception at The Pontifical Beda College, a seminary which trains priests from across the Commonwealth.
As Prince of Wales, Charles has visited the Vatican on five occasions: 1985, 2005 (for Pope John Paul II’s funeral), 2009, 2017, and 2019 (for Cardinal John Henry Newman’s canonization). Meanwhile, Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, accompanied him on the 2009 and 2017 visits. The late Queen Elizabeth was the first monarch since the Reformation to officially visit the Holy See in 1961.