British king's Vatican visit to focus on ecumenism, ecology

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The official state visit of Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican will focus on ecumenism and ecology, Vatican officials said Oct. 17.

Pope Leo XIV prays at the tomb of the Apostle Paul in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in this file photo from May 20, 2025. Britain’s King Charles III is expected to pray at the tomb before an ecumenical prayer service Oct. 23. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

After their private meeting with the pope Oct. 23, the king and queen will join Pope Leo in the Sistine Chapel for a midday prayer service focused on “care for creation,” said Archbishop Flavio Pace, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

Pope Leo will preside over the service with Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York, who currently is the ranking prelate of the Church of England. Bishop Sarah Mullally, whose appointment as the next archbishop of Canterbury was announced Oct. 3, will not be attending since her confirmation vote is not scheduled until January, Archbishop Pace said.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and Archbishop Leo Cushley of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, representing the Catholic bishops of Scotland, and the Rev. Rosie Frew, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, also will participate, he said.

The itinerary for the king and queen’s visit is largely based on what had been planned for April. Instead, the royal couple made a formal state visit to Italy and stopped by the Vatican briefly to greet an ailing Pope Francis.

After the prayer service in the Sistine Chapel, King Charles and Pope Leo will meet briefly with members of the Roman Curia and with business leaders and activists involved in fighting climate change and pollution, said Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

In the afternoon, Archbishop Pace said, the royal couple will travel to Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls where they will venerate the tomb of the Apostle Paul and participate in another ecumenical prayer service.

During the service, King Charles will be recognized as a “royal confrater” of the basilica, a decision made by U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of the basilica, and Benedictine Abbot Donato Ogliari, head of the monastery of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The conferral of the honor was approved by Pope Leo.

The honor, the archbishop said, is a sign of “confraternity” or spiritual fellowship that recognizes the king’s role as the supreme governor of the Church of England, the historic ties between English kings and the basilica, and the progress made in Catholic-Anglican dialogue since the 1960s.