King Charles III on Thursday became the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pope since the schism with Rome 500 years ago, in a service led by Leo XIV.
The 76-year-old monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, joined the US-born pope in the Sistine Chapel for a 30-minute service mixing Catholic and Anglican traditions.
The highlight of the royals’ state visit to the Holy See, the ceremony under Michelangelo’s spectacular ceiling frescoes marked a significant rapprochement between the two churches.
It was the first time a reigning English or British monarch has prayed publicly with a pope since king Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.
Triggered by the then pope’s refusal to annul Henry’s marriage so he could marry another woman, the schism made the monarch head of the separate Church of England.
Charles, who is officially supreme governor of the Anglican mother church, earlier had his first meeting with Pope Leo, who took over as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May following the death of Pope Francis.
He and Camilla were greeted at the Apostolic Palace by a ceremonial guard of honour by the Swiss Guard, the pope’s colourful security detail, before a private meeting with Leo in the papal library.
The pope led the Sistine Chapel service with the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, currently the senior cleric of the Church of England, while Charles and Camilla sat next to them.
Attended by Catholic and Anglican clerics, politicians and diplomats, the service centred on conservation and protecting the environment, a cause long championed by Charles.
The Sistine Chapel choir was joined by that from Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, one of the king’s residences.
The visit comes at a delicate time for Charles following new revelations about his brother Prince Andrew, who is mired in a scandal surrounding late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew announced on Friday he would relinquish his title as Duke of York, reportedly under pressure from Charles. He had already stepped back from royal duties in 2019.
Schism
William Gibson, professor of theology at Oxford Brookes university, said the Vatican service was a “historic event” in a slow resumption of ties.
“From 1536 to 1914 there were no formal diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See,” he told AFP, noting that London only opened an embassy at the Vatican in 1982.
In 1961, the Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’s mother, became the first British monarch to visit the Holy See since the split.
The law was changed in 2013 so that marrying a Catholic would no longer disqualify someone from becoming monarch — although they still have to be a Protestant themselves.
The rapprochement is important because “Anglicanism was born in reaction to the Catholic Church, and therefore in opposition,” said Hyacinthe Destivelle, a French priest and member of the Vatican’s dicastery (department) for promoting Christian unity.
This is no longer the case, despite “theological differences in recent decades”, he told AFP.
Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England — the mother church of the world’s 85-million-strong Anglican community — ordains women and allows priests to marry.
Sarah Mullally was recently named the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury, the Church’s top cleric, although she has yet to officially take up her post and so was not present Thursday.
Her nomination has been strongly criticised by conservative Anglicans.
Royal Confrater
Charles and Camilla are to attend a service at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, one of four major papal basilicas, which has historic links to the English crown.
The king will be made a “Royal Confrater” of the basilica and presented with a specially designed seat for use by him and future British monarchs.
Charles has visited the Vatican several times and met privately with Pope Francis on April 9, just days before the pontiff’s death.
The visit comes as the Catholic Church celebrates the Jubilee, a year-long event held every 25 years which has drawn millions of pilgrims to the Vatican.
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