The King and Queen will begin their two-day state visit to the Holy See to meet Pope Leo XIV for the first time since he was elected to office.
The trip will be a historic moment for Charles, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, who will become the first British monarch to pray at a public service with the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, since the Reformation.
The 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 will celebrate the Papal Jubilee held every 25 years.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said about the trip: “This will be the first state visit, since the Reformation, where the Pope and the Monarch will pray together in an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel, and the first time the monarch will have attended a service in St Paul’s Outside the Walls, a church with an historic connection to the English Crown.”
