by Caroline Davies, Guardian
Monarch will join Pope Leo XIV at an ecumenical service in Sistine Chapel during visit to the Vatican next month
King Charles will become the first reigning English monarch since Henry VIII split from Rome in 1534 to pray publicly with a pope during his state visit to the Holy See next week.
The king will join Pope Leo XIV at an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel during his visit with the queen to the Vatican on 22-23 October, a gesture regarded as a “significant moment” in relations between the Catholic church and the Church of England, of which Charles is supreme governor.
The royals will also visit the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, whose connections with the English crown stretch back to Saxon rulers, including the kings Offa and Æthelwulf, when they provided for the upkeep of St Paul the apostle’s tomb inside the papal basilica.
In another gesture of goodwill, the king has agreed to a suggestion by the basilica’s abbot, and approved by the pope, that he will become “royal confrater” of the abbey. This gift of “confraternity” is a recognition of spiritual fellowship.
A special seat has been created for the monarch that will remain in the basilica as a perpetual mark of mutual respect between Pope Leo and the king as heads of state. Decorated with the king’s coat of arms, he will use the chair during an ecumenical service in the abbey, after which it will remain in the apse of the basilica for future use by his heirs and successors.
Read also: King Charles and the Catholic ‘hand of history’ by Catherine Pepinster, Religion Media Centre