King Charles III and Queen Camilla to meet Pope Leo

The trip – scheduled for late October – will see the royal couple hold their first meeting with Pope Leo XIV. Buckingham Palace said Charles and Camilla would join the new Pontiff in celebrating the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year.

“The visit will also celebrate the ecumenical work by the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the Jubilee year’s theme of walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’,” the palace said.

The royal couple were supposed to pay a state visit to the Vatican in early April, but the trip was postponed over Pope Francis’ poor health. They continued with a state visit to Italy, visiting Rome and Ravenna in the northeast.

Charles and Camilla were able to privately visit Pope Francis on April 9 – a fortnight before the Argentine pope died.

The meeting, which fell on the royal couple’s 20th wedding anniversary, was organised on short notice, as it was subject to the Pope’s health. Francis was said to have been keen to personally wish them a happy anniversary.

As Prince of Wales, Charles has visited Vatican City five times. He was present in St Peter’s Square for the 2019 canonisation ceremony of Saint John Henry Newman. Charles’ other official visits to the Holy See were in 2017, 2009, 2005 and 1985.

Following Leo’s election in May, the King sent a private message of congratulations to the first-ever US Pontiff.

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King Charles, Queen Camilla to visit Pope Leo in October | RNZ News (CNN/Radio New Zealand)