When King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in the Sistine Chapel this week to pray with Pope Leo XIV, it won’t just be a royal photo op – it will be the closest Britain has come to healing a five-hundred-year-old religious divide born of politics, power and love.For the first time since the Reformation of Henry VIII in the 16th century, a British monarch will publicly pray with the Pope. The Vatican describes it as a gesture of “faith and friendship”. Buckingham Palace calls it a “milestone in the relationship between the Church of England and the Catholic Church.”
It’s also a personal moment for Charles — the supreme head of the Church of England — to symbolically undo, or at least soften, the schism his ancestor created when he split from Rome to secure a divorce.King Charles and Queen Camilla landed in Rome on Wednesday ahead of a historic joint prayer with Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff. The Sistine Chapel service will feature the Vatican Choir and choristers from St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle singing together – a scene that would have been unimaginable in Henry VIII’s time.After the prayer, the king will be made a “Royal Brother” of St. Paul’s Basilica Outside the Walls, a title that dates back to the Saxon kings who once funded the upkeep of St. Paul’s Tomb. His special chair, emblazoned with his coat of arms, will remain there for future British monarchs.The last time a British sovereign and the Pope met for prayer, Europe was on the brink of the Reformation. Henry VIII’s break with Rome was not simply a religious act; it was a political riot. His new Church of England made the crown both a spiritual and secular power – and for centuries Catholics were barred from office, inheritance and the throne.This week’s meeting turns that symbolism on its head. A monarch descended from Henry would kneel under Michelangelo’s frescoes alongside the Pope—not as adversaries, but as partners in the faith.It also reflects how far modern Christianity has come from dogmatics to diplomacy. When Pope Francis blessed Charles and Camilla in 2024 — despite both being divorced — it quietly acknowledged a moral evolution the Vatican has resisted for centuries.
Anglican rift beneath the surface
The ecumenical warmth, however, masks a deeper unease in the Church of England. Next year, Dame Sarah Mullally will become the first woman to lead the Church – a major event that has angered traditionalists and sparked talk of an Anglican move to Rome.Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican, relying on Benedict XVI’s Ordinariate for disaffected Anglicans in 2009, could use this moment to bring whole parishes into Catholic communion, allowing them to preserve Anglican traditions. This possibility—whispered but real—could be part of Charles’ private discussions with the Pope.
Politics behind the pilgrimage
Charles’ visit to the Vatican comes as he faces turbulence at home, with MPs calling for Prince Andrew to be stripped of his titles over his links to Jeffrey Epstein. For the king, this Roman interlude offers both diplomatic dignity and spiritual reprieve—an opportunity to build his reign around unity rather than scandal.It also confirms Charles’s larger vision: using faith, climate and culture as tools of soft power. His visit to the Vatican coincides precisely with his environmental offenses, as formulated in the Palace’s statement: “a bulwark against those who promote conflict, division and tyranny.”
A moment full of history
Henry VIII resigned from the papacy to obtain a divorce. Charles, five centuries later, stands before the Pope who blesses his second marriage. It’s this quiet irony – the story that folds back – that gives a visit to Rome its resonance.Under the gilded ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the monarch of Great Britain and the Pontiff of Christendom will pray not for conquest or forgiveness, but for harmony, a gesture centuries in the making.The Reformation began with a king who refused to kneel. It can, at least symbolically, find closure with whoever finally does.
