King Carlos III and Queen Camilla will make their first state visit to the Vatican at the end of October, as announced by Buckingham Palace.
The Palace pointed out in a statement on September 27 that the King and Queen “will unite Pope Leo XIV in the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2025,” which, he said, is a “special time” for the Catholic Church, “traditionally marked every 25 years.”
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The Palace also indicated that the visit “will celebrate the ecumenical work of the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the subject of the jubilee year to walk together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.”
The King and Queen visited the Holy See on April 9 of this year, when they held a private meeting with Pope Francis in his residence for Casa Santa Marta just 12 days before his death.
Francisco would have blessed his marriage During the 20 -minute audience, which coincided with the 20th wedding anniversary of Carlos and Camilla. Camilla is divorced from her first husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles, a Catholic who still lives.
That audience was intended as a state visit, but it was not possible due to Francisco’s delicate state of health. The members of British royalty were also making a state visit to Italy at that time.
The visits of state to the Vatican by the British monarch are, like their secular equivalents, more formal occasions than private visits, and underline both ecumenical and diplomatic relations, with full formal recognition of the double role of the Pope as head of state and religious leader. On the other hand, a private audience focuses more on spiritual and personal relationships, with less formalities and without official status of state.
The British monarchs have made several state visits to the Holy See in modern history: King Eduardo VII met with Pope Leo XIII in April 1903, followed by Queen Elizabeth II in October 1980, when he met with Pope John Paul II. She made another state visit to John Paul II in 2000. Isabel also made two unofficial visits: to Pope John XXIII in May 1961 and Pope Francis in April 2014.
Carlos has been a frequent visitor from the Vatican, with a total of five visits as Prince of Wales, starting in April 1985, when he met with Pope John Paul II, and again in April 2005, when he attended his funeral.
He visited Benedict XVI in April 2009 and April 2017, both times accompanied by Camilla, then Duchess of Cornualles, and finally in October 2019 for the Canonization of San John Henry Newman. Carlos also met with San Juan Pablo II and accompanied him in Canterbury in 1982, on the first visit of a Pope to the United Kingdom.
King Carlos has shown a living interest in the life and works of San John Henry Newman, and the beginning of this month became the first monarch to visit the Oratory of San Felipe Neri in Birmingham, the priestly community that Newman established there in 1848. During that visit he said he hoped that “not spending too much time” before he met with Pope León.
The details will be announced “in due course”
The Buckingham Palace said that “in due course” more details of the state visit of its Majesties to the Vatican will be announced.
It is possible that it coincides with the formal proclamation of San John Henry Newman as the 38th Doctor of the Church, as announced by the Vatican in July. The Holy See has not yet confirmed when it could take place.
When asked if he could coincide with the proclamation, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said this afternoon that “he did not have much to share for the moment.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Edward Pentin
Edward Pentin is a collaborator of the National Catholic Register and Vaticanist of Ewtn News. He began informing about the Pope and the Vatican on Radio Vaticana before becoming a correspondent in Rome for Ewtn. He has also informed about the Holy See and the Catholic Church for several other publications, including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specialized in the Church and the Middle East.