Britain’s King Charles and Pope Leo prayed together in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday, October 23, marking the first joint worship including an English monarch and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke away from Rome in 1534.
Latin chants and English prayers resonated through the chapel, where Pope Leo XIV was elected the first U.S. pope six months ago.
Charles, who is the supreme governor of the Church of England, was seated at the pope’s left near the altar as Leo and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led a service that featured the Sistine Chapel Choir and two royal choirs.
Although Charles has met the last three popes and two previous popes visited Britain, their encounters never before included joint prayers.
The King and Queen Camilla are on a state visit to the Vatican to mark the closening ties between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, five centuries after their turbulent separation.
Anglican Rev. James Hawkey, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, commented that the moment in the extraordinary setting of the Sistine Chapel offers “a kind of healing of history.”
He noted this would have been impossible just a generation ago, representing how far the churches have come over the last 60 years of dialogue.
The split between the two churches was formalized in 1534 after Pope Clement VII refused to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
While Henry’s desire for a male heir was the immediate catalyst, the break also involved the English crown’s seizure of church assets and the growth of Protestant ideas in England. The ensuing period saw England swing between Catholicism and Protestantism, leading to the execution of hundreds of people for their faith.
Charles and Camilla also had a private meeting with Pope Leo on Thursday morning. Later in the afternoon, the King will travel to Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Catholicism’s four most venerated churches. Pope Leo has approved giving the King a new title of “Royal Confrater,” or brother, at the connected abbey.
