Pope Francis receives King Carlos III and Queen Camila in private audience

Pope Francis met this Wednesday afternoon at a private audience at his residence in Santa Marta with King Carlos III of the United Kingdom and Queen Camila.

During the meeting, the Holy Father expressed “his good wishes to the royal couple on the occasion of their wedding anniversary,” the Vatican press office reported.

In addition, the Pontiff, who resumed his work meetings this week with high positions of the Vatican curia, transmitted words of encouragement to the British monarch, “wishing him a prompt and complete recovery” of cancer that was diagnosed in February 2024. The monarch had to be hospitalized at the end of March due to the side effects of the treatment.

Pope Francis left the hospital on March 23 after five weeks of hospitalization in the Gemelli of Rome for bilateral pneumonia.

After his return to the Vatican, he has maintained two weeks of rigorous confinement, without visits or meetings, by medical prescription, although now he feels strength to begin a new phase.

The doctors advised him another four weeks of convalescence, that is, until the end of May, to completely recover from the infection of the respiratory tract that endangered his life twice.

The visit of King Carlos III was initially planned for April 8 to celebrate the 2025 jubilee, but was postponed as a mutual agreement due to the Pope’s health conditions, according to a March 25 statement of the Buckingham Palace.

“The state visit of the king and the queen to the Holy See has been postponed by mutual agreement, since the medical evaluation has suggested that Pope Francis would benefit from a prolonged period of rest and recovery,” the royal family published in the social network X.

The Vatican distributed at 8:00 (local time) a photo of the match that extended for 20 minutes. In the image the pontiff is seen shaking Camila’s hand and without the nasal cannulas that help him in specific moments of the day to breathe.

The encounter with the Holy Father was the first since Carlos III, 76, became a monarch and, therefore, the head of the Church of England in 2022.

“His Majesties were delighted that the Pope was well enough to receive them and had the opportunity to share his best wishes in person,” Buckingham palace said in a statement.