King Charles and Pope Leo came together in prayer at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday, marking the first joint worship between an English monarch and a Catholic pope since King Henry VIII’s split from Rome in 1534.
Latin chants and English prayers filled the chapel, where just six months earlier, Leo had been elected the first U.S. pope by the College of Cardinals beneath Michelangelo’s iconic frescoes of Christ and the Last Judgment.
King Charles, was seated to the pope’s left near the chapel altar while Pope Leo XIV and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led the service, which featured the Sistine Chapel Choir and two royal choirs. Although the King has met the last three popes, and both Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI visited Britain, none of their previous meetings included joint prayers.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a state visit to the Vatican, symbolizing the strengthening relationship between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.
Pope Leo held a private meeting with King Charles and Queen Camilla on Thursday morning. In the afternoon, the King is set to visit Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Catholicism’s four most revered churches, where Pope Leo has approved granting him the honorary title of “Royal Confrater,” meaning brother, at the adjoining abbey.
Additionally, Charles will be presented with a special wooden chair in the basilica’s apse. This seat, reserved exclusively for future British monarchs, is adorned with the king’s coat of arms and the ecumenical motto Ut unum sint.
Anglican Reverend James Hawkey, canon theologian of Westminster Abbey, described the event as “a kind of healing of history” within the extraordinary setting of the Sistine Chapel. He noted that such a moment would have been impossible just a generation ago and highlighted how far the churches have progressed over the past 60 years of dialogue.