VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church and the Church of England, divided for centuries over issues including the ordination of female priests, will take a historic step toward unity next week when Britain's King Charles III and Pope Leo XIV pray together in the Sistine Chapel, officials said Friday.
The Oct. 23 ecumenical prayer service, focused on shared concern for care of God's creation, marks the first time since the Reformation that the heads of the two churches will pray together.
Buckingham Palace and Vatican officials on Friday announced details of the two-day trip Charles and Queen Camilla will undertake Oct. 22-23. The visit was originally scheduled for April but postponed due to Pope Francis' final illness shortly before his death.
Charles, the titular head of the Church of England, strongly wanted to visit the Vatican during the 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter-century celebration of Christianity. In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who visited during the 2000 Jubilee, said Monsignor Flavio Pace, secretary of the Vatican's office for promoting Christian unity.
During the visit, Charles will receive a formal new title and recognition at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, a pontifical basilica with strong traditional ties to the Church of England. The title “Royal Confrater” is a sign of spiritual fellowship and will be conferred along with a special chair decorated with his coat of arms. The chair will remain in the basilica for use by Charles and his heirs, officials said.
Anglicans split from the Catholic Church in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was denied a marriage annulment. While popes have fostered warm relations with the Church of England and the broader Anglican Communion for decades, the churches remain divided over issues such as the ordination of female priests, which the Catholic Church prohibits.
Significantly, Archbishop of Canterbury-designate Sarah Mullally will not join the king and queen, as she has not yet been formally installed as the Church of England's spiritual leader. She is the first woman to hold the position, considered first among equals in the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members across 165 countries.
In her place, the Archbishop of York will preside with Leo in the Sistine Chapel service, which will feature hymns sung by members of the royal choirs alongside the Sistine Chapel choir, Pace said.
Pace declined to say whether the Sistine Chapel service would have proceeded as planned had Mullally been installed in time and joined the king and queen. He cited past joint statements from the Catholic and Anglican churches acknowledging differences over women's ordination but affirming that such obstacles should not hinder theological dialogue.
Charles and Camilla's trip was originally scheduled for April as part of a joint Vatican-Italy state visit. After Francis became ill, the king and queen continued with the planned four-day leg in Italy and briefly greeted Francis at the Vatican just weeks before his death.
