For perhaps the first time ever, certainly the first time since the tragedy of the Reformation, Pope Leo XIV and a British sovereign, King Charles III, accompanied by Queen Camilla and assisted by the Anglican Archbishop of York, prayed together in an ecumenical service of Midday Prayer in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. (As Prince of Wales, King Charles met with previous popes, as did his mother Queen Elizabeth II, but this was the first time the Pope and a British monarch had formally prayed together.) The event crowned decades of ecumenical dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, of whose oldest branch, the Church of England, King Charles is the "Supreme Governor." For the King, this visit comes as the culmination of a lifelong personal commitment to ecumenical and interreligious relations and dialogue.
The King also visited the Basilica of Saint Paul's Outside the Walls, where he was formally installed as the Basilica's "Royal Confrater," highlighting the historical link between the Basilica and the pre-Reformation English monarchy, when Anglo-Saxon kings contributed to the maintenance of the tomb of Saint Paul. Indeed, the symbol of the English chivalric Order of the Garter is still included in the Baslica's Coat of Arms.
Reciprocally, Pope Leo will become "Papal Confrater" of Saint George's Chapel, Windsor, which presumably he may visit if ever the Pope makes an official visit to the United Kingdom. His predecessor Pope Benedict XVI visited the UK in 2010, when he beatified John Cardinal Newman, whose subsequent canonization in Rome in 2019 was attended by Charles, then the Prince of Wales. (Pope Leo plans to proclaim Saint John Newman a Doctor of the Church on November 1.)
Despite the external resemblances - the Anglican Churches have a hierarchical, bishop-centered structure and a ritual form which preserves much of medieval English liturgical practice - the Catholic Church and Anglican Churches are divided by very serious questions about the validity of Anglican orders (thanks to changes made under Edward VI) and, more recently, the Anglican break with Catholic and orthodox sacramental understanding by ordaining women priests and bishops. Such serious differences remain as long-term obstacles to any kind of complete corporate reunion, but they are no longer overwhelming obstacles to dialogue and common prayer and witness, which represent an important common ecclesial response to the increasing crises of our time.
Photo: Pope Leo XIV with King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the Vatican on Thursday.
Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson Collection, via Getty Images
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