King to pray at public service with Pope during state visit to Vatican

The King and Queen will begin their two-day state visit to the Holy See to meet Pope Leo XIV for the first time since he was elected to office.

The trip will be a historic moment for Charles, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, who will become the first British monarch to pray at a public service with the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, since the Reformation.

The visit to the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican, is understood to be deeply significant for the King personally and will celebrate the Papal Jubilee held every 25 years.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said about the trip: “This will be the first state visit, since the Reformation, where the Pope and the Monarch will pray together in an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel, and the first time the monarch will have attended a service in St Paul’s Outside the Walls, a church with an historic connection to the English Crown.”

The King and Queen were due to make the state visit to the Holy See in April, but the health problems of Pope Francis meant the trip was postponed, although the couple did privately meet the pontiff, who died later that month.

The couple are due to arrive in Italy later with the programme of events to be carried out on Thursday.

The King and Queen will be greeted by Pope Leo in his official residence, the Apostolic Palace, and afterwards, when Camilla tours the Pauline Chapel, home to Michelangelo’s frescoes of St Peter and St Paul, Charles will meet Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State.

Charles, Camilla and the Pope will then attend the special ecumenical service, where they will pray, which is focused on the theme of care for creation, reflecting the pontiff and the King’s commitment to protecting nature and concern for the environment.

The King and Queen will later attend a service at the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, where a special seat has been created for Charles, which will remain at the place of worship for use by his successors.

Charles will also be recognised for the British monarchy’s historic association with the Basilica, the seat of a Benedictine Abbey, and will be made “Royal Confrater” of the abbey, as in centuries past, monarchs provided for the upkeep of the tomb of St Paul at the basilica.

The state visit will end with the King attending a reception at the Pontifical Beda College, a seminary training priests from across the Commonwealth, and the Queen will meet six Catholic Sisters from the International Union of Superiors General.