Nearly five centuries after King Henry VIII of England broke with the Catholic Church so he could divorce and marry again (and again and again), another divorced and remarried English king prayed with the pope on Thursday in an ecumenical service inside the Sistine Chapel.
The service, conducted in the same chamber where Pope Leo XIV was recently selected as head of the Roman Catholic Church, was the first time in modern history that a pontiff and a British monarch, the nominal head of the Church of England, have publicly prayed together.
The service was a sign of markedly improved relations between the Anglican and Catholic denominations as well as the eagerness of King Charles III to be viewed as an ecumenical leader. Queen Elizabeth II, the king’s mother, met with several popes over her seven-decade reign, but never publicly prayed with any of them. King Charles and Queen Camilla met with Pope Francis in April, shortly before Francis’s death, but there was no prayer service.
The king and queen participated in the service as part of a state visit to the Vatican that had been planned before Francis’s death to coincide with the Jubilee, a year of penance and forgiveness that takes place every quarter century.
For Charles, the visit comes at a difficult time, as the royal family struggles to deal with new disclosures about the ties of Prince Andrew, his brother, to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Under intense pressure from the king, Andrew gave up the use of his title, the Duke of York.
But the visit also showcases one of the king’s most longstanding causes: religious tolerance. He marked his first 100 days on the throne in 2022 by visiting a Jewish community center in London, and dancing the hora at a Hanukkah party. At his coronation in 2023, he met with leaders of non-Christian faiths, among them Judaism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Charles’ pluralistic approach has occasionally landed him in hot water. In 1994, decades before becoming king, he said he foresaw his role as defender of faith in general, rather than the Defender of the Faith, in what was seen as a nod to Britain’s growing diversity. He later clarified his remarks, saying, “while at the same time being Defender of the Faith, you can also be protector of faiths.”
In a second ecumenical service on Thursday, the king was expected to take up the honorary title of “Royal Confrater,” which recognizes the historical ties between the monarchy and the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. The Vatican also designed a chair for the king and his descendants decorated with the royal coat of arms and bearing an inscription of the Latin phrase “Ut unum sint” — “That they may be one” — recognizing a shared Christian faith.
The two services were organized as a sign “of our closeness and willingness to see one another as brothers and sisters despite differences,” Reverend Martin Browne, who is part of the Vatican department that promotes Christian Unity in Rome, said ahead of the state visit. “That is clearly an important sign for the world, not just in terms of the ecumenical project, but for humanity in general.”
Together with Leo, the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, led the prayers under the frescoes by Michelangelo and accompanied by both Anglican and Catholic choirs.
Ordinarily, the archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, would have accompanied the king in a visit to Rome. But the Most Rev. Justin Welby resigned from the post last November after a report said he failed to pursue a proper investigation into claims of widespread clerical abuse of boys and young men. This month, the Right Rev. Sarah Mullally was named the first woman to occupy the role, but she is not expected to be installed officially until early next year.
The ordination of women is a dividing line between the Anglican and Catholic faiths. Some Anglican churches have appointed women priests since the 1970s, while the Vatican permits only men to be ordained. The Catholic Church has repeatedly postponed discussions about whether women can be ordained, even as lower-ranking church ministers known as deacons.
When asked in a press briefing last week if Leo would have performed a joint prayer service with the archbishop-designate, Archbishop Flavio Pace, secretary of the Vatican department that promotes Christian unity, said that it was not an issue until she was installed. He acknowledged that the ordination of Anglican women was a “potential problem” between the churches but said “it is more urgent that we stay together, that we dialogue, and that we continue to walk together.”
Once Archbishop-designate Mullally steps into her role, she will likely meet Leo, as the pontiff regularly hosts church leaders in Rome. “The development of having female clergy and female bishops in the Church of England is one that is recognized as a matter for the Church of England by the Catholic Church,” said the Right Rev. Anthony Ball, the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See.
In theory, there is no reason the pope cannot conduct future prayer services with a female archbishop of Canterbury, said Anna Rowlands, a political theologian at Durham University in England. “She will be, once installed, the head of a fellow Christian ecclesial community,” that the Catholic Church has a relationship with, Professor Rowlands said.
To conduct such a service would not suggest the papacy is moving toward the ordination of women, theological experts said. Nor does Leo praying with King Charles represent a meeting of the minds on other issues that may divide them.
Anglican priests can be married and some Anglican churches allow openly gay priests, while the Catholic church demands that clerics remain celibate and prohibits openly gay clergy. Divorced Catholics who have not had their marriages annulled may not remarry in a church service, while divorced Anglicans may remarry in the Church of England.
“We don’t have to change each other,” said the Very Rev. Andrew McGowan, a professor of Anglican studies at the Yale Divinity School.
Experts said it was unlikely that the pope or the king would bring up divisive issues. “There’s certain topics you don’t bring up at Thanksgiving dinner,” said Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior analyst at Religion News Service and a longtime Vatican analyst. “You know where everybody stands and so the effort is to see where we can work together.”
An area where the two leaders share a common interest is climate change. The king’s visit was originally scheduled to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si, Francis’s groundbreaking document on the need to protect the health of the planet. Leo has spoken forcefully about the need for global action to prevent the greatest burdens of climate change falling on the poor, and King Charles has long warned of an existential threat to humanity from rising carbon emissions.
Mark Landlercontributed reporting from London and Josephine de La Bruyère from Rome.
Motoko Rich is the Times bureau chief in Rome, where she covers Italy, the Vatican and Greece.
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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