Coming Vatican visit by UK’s King Charles signals closer Anglican-Catholic ties

VATICAN CITY/LONDON - Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla will meet Pope Leo at the Vatican next week in a visit seen as a sign of closer ties between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, five centuries after their turbulent separation.

The British royals will arrive on Oct 22 for the two-day state visit, which is only being made to the Vatican and not to surrounding Italy.

King Charles, supreme governor of the Church of England, will pray together with Pope Leo in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in an ecumenical service on Oct 23, Buckingham Palace and the Vatican said, in the first joint prayer including a British monarch and Catholic pope since 1534.

The King will also make a visit later that day to Rome’s Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, one of Catholicism’s four most venerated churches, where Pope Leo has granted him a new title of Royal Confrater, or brother, at the connected abbey.

“This is certainly a historic event,” said Archbishop Flavio Pace, a senior Vatican official responsible for ecumenical dialogue. “It is the recognition of a joint journey” among the two Churches, he said.

King to receive special seat at Catholic Basilica

The Catholic Church, with 1.4 billion members, and the Anglican Communion, with 85 million members, have been improving their ties since the 1960s, but the plans for the visit represent some of the strongest steps of recognition yet taken between the denominations.

The teachings of the two traditions align on many major issues, but the Catholic Church does not ordain women and generally does not allow priests to marry.

The Church of England is one of 46 autonomous churches across some 165 countries that together form the Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the prime minister, leads the English Church and is regarded as the spiritual head of the global Communion.

King Charles, who

visited the Vatican in April

with Queen Camilla earlier in 2025 to see Pope Francis shortly before the pontiff’s death, will also be gifted a special seat in the apse of the Rome basilica.

The wooden chair, reserved in the future for use only by British monarchs, is decorated with the King’s coat of arms and the ecumenical motto “Ut unum sint” (That they may be one).

New Archbishop of Canterbury not part of visit

The split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England was formalised in 1534, when King Henry VIII broke away from papal authority after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

King Henry VIII’s desire for a male heir – and a new wife who might provide one – was the immediate catalyst, but other factors were also at play, involving the English crown’s seizure of church assets and the growth of Protestant ideas in England.

Today, the king’s role in the Church of England is largely ceremonial.

Bishop Sarah Mullally, named the

first woman to become Archbishop of Canterbury

earlier in October, is not expected to be part of the royal visit, as she has not yet been installed in her role.

The Sistine Chapel service on Oct 23 will feature two royal choirs, Buckingham Palace and the Vatican said, and King Charles and Pope Leo will have a meeting afterwards to discuss issues of climate sustainability. REUTERS