King Charles Makes History by Praying with Pope Leo

The King and the Pope have prayed together for the first time.

The King, as supreme governor of the Church of England, has become the first monarch to take part in an ecumenical service with a Pope since the Reformation.

He prayed alongside Pope Leo XIV during a State visit to the Vatican after arriving in Rome on Wednesday.

The men, who met in person for the first time on Thursday, joined a special service in the Sistine Chapel for what was intended as a symbolic gesture of renewed bonds within the Christian faith.

The state visit to the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican, is understood to be deeply significant for the King personally and coincides with the Papal Jubilee held every 25 years.

They were then introduced to a line-up of dignitaries before hearing the national anthems of the UK and Vatican City.

Before the service, King Charles and the Pope sat down for a short meeting, in which the monarch said he was “so thrilled it’s possible to visit”.

As they posed for an official photograph, the King joked about the “constant hazard” of the cameras, to which the pontiff said: “You get used to it.”

They went on to exchange gifts, which the King described as a “small token of esteem and appreciation”. He presented the Pope with a large silver signed photograph, as per royal custom on state visits, and an icon of St Edward the Confessor.

The Pope gave the King a signed photograph of himself and scale version of the mosaic of “Christ Pantocrator” in the Norman Cathedral of Cefalù, in Sicily, which had been made in the Vatican.

In the Sistine Chapel, the King, Queen and Pope sat on yellow, throne-like seats under Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement. They were also joined by the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, who was representing the Church of England.

The choirs of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal and St George’s Chapel joined the Sistine Chapel choir to sing Thomas Tallis’s If Ye Love Me and two psalms.

Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, read from the Letter to the Romans before the Archbishop of York and the Pope offered short words of prayer, with the congregation replying.

Speaking in unison, they said: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore.”

“Amen,” the King replied.

The moment marked the first time in modern history that a supreme governor of the Church of England and a Pope have prayed together in public.