King Charles III is due to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in early April, where they will also participate in an ecumenical ceremony in the Sistine Chapel on the 'care for creation.'
Editor's note: King Charles' trip to the Vatican has now been postponed due to Pope Francis' need for rest and convalescence. Read LifeSite's coverage here.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — King Charles III is due to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in early April, where they will also participate in an ecumenical ceremony in the Sistine Chapel on the “care for creation.”
In an announcement issued late Monday, Buckingham Palace provided details of King Charles III’s upcoming visit to the Vatican and Italy next month. It will be Charles' first visit as King, having previously visited the Vatican as Prince of Wales in 1985, 2005 for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, 2009, 2017, and 2019 for the canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Pope Francis on April 8 in what is billed as a visit to mark the 2025 Jubilee Year. After a private audience with Francis, the King and Queen will join the Pontiff for a notably rare event – an ecumenical event held in the Sistine Chapel celebrating their joint focus on ecological issues.
Charles is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a position held since the Protestant Revolt and break with Rome enacted by King Henry VIII in 1534.
The Palace wrote that the event is “focused on the theme of ‘care for creation’, reflecting Pope Francis’ and His Majesty’s long-standing commitment to Nature.” This ceremony, the Palace wrote, is a “joining hands in a celebration of ecumenism, and of the work The King and The Pope have done over many years on climate and Nature.”
As part of the Royal visit, Charles and Camilla will also visit the Pontifical Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls for a ceremony.
In both churches, members of of the Choir of the King’s Chapel Royal and the Choir of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor will perform, being joined by the Sistine Chapel Choir in the Sistine Chapel.
READ: King Charles hosts Ramadan dinner, fails to mark start of Lent
Following this, King Charles will take part in a reception for Catholic seminarians studying in Rome who hail from Commonwealth countries. Camilla will meet with female Catholic religious leaders in an event hosted by the International Union of Superiors General.
The event, Buckingham Palace stated, "will be an historic visit in the year of the Papal Jubilee, and will mark a significant step forward in relations between the Catholic Church and Church of England."
The Royal tour continues to official meetings in Rome with the Italian President and Prime Minister, before wending its way north to Ravenna to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the province’s liberation from Nazi occupation by the Allied Forces in April 1945.
Monday’s announcement is noteworthy for its presumption of the participation of Pope Francis, along with the anticipation that he will be in situ in the Vatican for the visit.
Francis has been in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since February 14, being treated for bronchitis and double pneumonia – with the condition still present. Though doctors declared March 10 that he is no longer in imminent danger, his situation remains complex.
No date or plan for his hospital discharge has been made known as yet.
However his medical team have reduced the regularity of the once nightly medical bulletins. Now only two or three times a week, such a frequency suggests they are moving into a new phase of his already lengthy hospitalization.
On Sunday the Vatican released the first image of the Pope since he was hospitalized: showing only his back in what was described as an image of Francis concelebrating Mass in his hospital suite’s chapel.
Francis still uses an oxygen mask at night, at relies on the high-flow nasal cannulas during the day. The Vatican commented Monday that his daytime use of nasal cannulas is somewhat reduced, but gave no more specific information.
Francis has now been in hospital for 32 days, which is the second longest papal hospitalization, being outdone only by Pope John Paul II’s particularly lengthy 55-day stay in the summer of 1981.
Recently King Charles has come under fierce criticism for his decision to promote Islamic Ramadan rather than Lent.
The proudly ecumenical monarch has long championed the cause of ecological issues before and after his ascent to the throne, and as such has been dubbed by some in the media as a "climate change" king.
