Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla greet Pope Francis during a visit at the Vatican April 9. The royal couple plans to make a state visit to the Vatican in late October. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla are set to make a state visit to the Vatican in late October, six months after the trip was postponed due to the illness of the late Pope Francis.
While the king and queen delayed their formal state visit in April, they met privately with Francis during their four-day state visit to Italy. Francis died just two weeks after the meeting, which took place on the occasion of the royal couple’s 20th wedding anniversary.
The midafternoon visit April 9 lasted about 20 minutes and included a private exchange of gifts.
The royal couple had previously seen Francis during an April 2017 visit to the Vatican. King Charles, then Prince of Wales, also met Francis during the 2019 canonization of St. John Henry Newman.
The rescheduled visit will allow Charles and Camilla to join the new pope, Leo XIV, in celebrating the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. The Jubilee is a year of reconciliation and pilgrimage that the church celebrates every 25 years.
The visit to the Vatican is also symbolic of the effort to build closer ties between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, which split from Rome in the 16th century during the reign of King Henry VIII. Charles, who is head of the Church of England, has made building bridges between people of all faiths a priority since he ascended the throne 2 1/2 years ago.
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