VATICAN CITY — King Charles III and Pope Leo XIV have prayed together in the Sistine Chapel in an unprecedented act of unity between the British monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church, marking the first time in at least five centuries that a British monarch and pontiff have shared a moment of worship.
The historic service, held as part of a royal visit to the Vatican by King Charles and Queen Camilla, brought together clergy and choirs from both the Catholic Church and the Church of England.
The service, led jointly by Pope Leo and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, was conducted mostly in English with hymns in Latin echoing beneath Michelangelo’s famed ceiling frescoes.
Charles, the supreme governor of the Church of England, sat beside the pontiff near the chapel’s altar.
Vatican officials described the occasion as “a symbolic gesture of reconciliation and shared faith” between two branches of Christianity divided since the English Reformation in the 16th century.
A spokesperson for the king said the moment signified a strengthening of ties between the Catholic and Anglican communions, calling it “a bulwark against those promoting conflict, division and tyranny.”
Before the prayer session, Charles and Camilla met privately with Pope Leo at the Apostolic Palace.
They exchanged gifts — the king presented an Icon of St Edward the Confessor, an 11th-century English monarch revered for his piety, while the pope gave a scaled mosaic of Christ Pantocrator, crafted in the Vatican.
Later, Charles met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, who attended the king’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in 2023 — the first papal representative to do so in 500 years.
Queen Camilla, wearing a dark gown and headscarf in keeping with Vatican protocol, accompanied the king throughout the engagements.
The royal couple were received with full ceremonial honours in the courtyard of San Damaso.
During the visit, Charles conferred two British honours on Pope Leo — naming him a Papal Confrater of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
In return, the pontiff approved a new title for the monarch, Royal Confrater, to be formally bestowed at Rome’s Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where a specially crafted chair bearing the royal coat of arms will be reserved for future British sovereigns.
The visit coincides with the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee, a year of renewal and forgiveness celebrated every quarter century.
The jubilee, first announced by Pope John Paul II at the close of the 2000 Great Jubilee, was described by Pope Leo as “a time for reconciliation, not remembrance of division.”
The meeting represents a powerful gesture of healing in a relationship fractured since the reign of Henry VIII, who in 1534 severed ties with Rome after the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
That act birthed the Church of England and cemented a centuries-long religious divide between the British Crown and the papacy.
Despite frequent royal visits to the Vatican in the modern era, no British monarch has previously joined a pope in public worship.
