{"id":142503,"date":"2025-10-24T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/142503\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T10:22:11","slug":"king-charles-becomes-first-british-monarch-in-hundreds-of-years-to-pray-with-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/142503\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles becomes first British monarch in hundreds of years to pray with Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head of the Church of England and his wife Camilla had private talks with Pope Leo in his official residence\n<\/p>\n

The pontiff led the prayer during the ecumenical service in the Vatican\u2019s famous Sistine Chapel, likely to be seen as another milestone in the journey of the two churches.<\/p>\n

It was the first time a British monarch, the supreme governor of the Church of England, had prayed at a public service with the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, since the Reformation in the 16th century.<\/p>\n

Charles and Camilla, making a two-day state visit to the Vatican, sat together a few metres from Pope Leo at the front of the congregation.<\/p>\n

At the end of the short service, Pope Leo led the symbolic moment with the words: \u201cLet us pray.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to say: \u201cGod our father, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to see your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough Christ our Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles and Camilla stood with the rest of the congregation who said \u201cAmen\u201d at the end of the prayer.<\/p>\n

Immediately afterwards, in \u00adanother moment of church unity, Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, who was also officiating during the service, said another prayer with Pope Leo.<\/p>\n

\n

Your Holiness, it\u2019s such a pleasure to meet you, if I may say so<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The intervening centuries since \u00adHenry VIII broke with Rome to establish the Church of England in the 16th century had been marked by mutual distrust between the English state and the papacy.<\/p>\n

But the ecumenical movement, a drive towards worldwide Christian unity which began early in the 20th century, has seen Anglicans and Roman Catholics working towards this goal of togetherness.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the controversy around Prince Andrew giving up his titles in an attempt to end the furore around allegations \u2013 which he denies \u2013 that he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre continued to make headlines.<\/p>\n

\"Handout<\/p>\n

Handout photo provided by Vatican Media of King Charles III and Queen Camilla meeting Pope Leo XIV in the Pope’s library, in Vatican City. Photo: PA<\/p>\n

But MPs will not be given time in the House of Commons to discuss the issue because the royal family wants parliament to focus on \u201cimportant \u00adissues\u201d, Downing Street said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Charles and Camilla sat down at a desk for talks with Pope Leo when they met privately with the pontiff in his official residence.<\/p>\n

When Charles first greeted Pope Leo he told him: \u201cYour Holiness, it\u2019s such a pleasure to meet you, if I may say so,\u201d and after introducing his wife, added: \u201cSo kind to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Pope\u2019s library, there was an exchange of gifts, laid out on a table with Charles presenting his host a photograph of himself with his wife and an icon of Saint Edward the Confessor, while the Pope gave a scale version of the mosaic of Christ Pantocrator, in the Norman Cathedral of Cefalu, in Sicily.<\/p>\n

Charles also had solo talks with \u00adCardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican\u2019s secretary of state, with the Vatican saying afterwards: \u201cMatters of common interest were discussed, such as environmental protection and the fight against poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticular attention was given to the shared commitment to promoting peace and security in the face of global challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, recalling the history of the church in the United Kingdom, there was a shared reflection on the need to continue promoting ecumenical dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, a service at the Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls celebrated Charles being recognised for the British monarchy\u2019s historic association with the church, the seat of a Benedictine abbey.<\/p>\n

Charles looked moved when he was made a royal confrater (brother) of the abbey. Monarchs have for centuries provided for the upkeep of the tomb of Saint Paul at the basilica which was privately visited by Charles.<\/p>\n

The king said: \u201cToday cannot be \u00adunderestimated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s head of state was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer early last year and is continuing his regular treatment programme, believed to be a weekly session.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, helped officiate at the service and delivered a prayer for those in poor health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head of the Church of England and his wife Camilla had private talks with Pope Leo in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,371,5094,11,12,15,16,5,2515,15156,15274,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-142503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-italy","14":"tag-king-charles-iii","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","21":"tag-prince-andrew","22":"tag-queen-camilla","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}