THE King has become the first Supreme Governor of the Church of England to pray in public with a pope.

In the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican on Thursday, the King and Queen attended a midday ecumenical service of prayer with Pope Leo XIV, cardinals, and other church leaders. The Pope and the Archbishop of York presided.

The Choirs of the Chapel Royal and St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the Sistine Chapel Choir sang psalms and hymns, including one by St Ambrose, translated into English by St John Henry Newman, whose canonisation the King attended in Rome in 2019 (News, 18 October 2019). In July, the Pope announced that Newman, a leading Tractarian before his secession in 1845, was to be declared a Doctor of the Church (News, 1 August).

The Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, then read from Romans, and the Moderator of the General Assembly Church of Scotland, the Rt Revd Rosie Frew, read a lesson from Ephesians.

The service followed the Pope’s private audience with the King and Queen, where they exchanged gifts in the morning. The King presented the Pope with an icon of St Edward the Confessor. In return, the Pope gave the King a scale reproduction of the famous Byzantine mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the Romanesque Cefalù Cathedral, Sicily. The Queen wore black and a mantilla, in accordance with traditional custom.

After the service, the Pope and the King went to the Sala Regia, in the Apostolic Palace, while the Queen met members of the choirs.

In the afternoon, the King and Queen visited the Papal Basilica and Abbey of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, where the King was granted the title of Royal Confrater of Saint Paul by Cardinal James Michael Harvey and Abbot Donato Ogliari, in recognition of “the long-standing ties between the British Crown and the Benedictine abbey attached to the basilica”, a statement from the Vatican said.

The King and Queen arrived in Rome on Wednesday. On Thursday, they were welcomed, with the National Anthem of the UK, into the San Damaso Courtyard by the Regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, Mgr Leonardo Sapienza, and Swiss Guards.

In a social-media post, Vatican News reported: “Their meeting with the Holy Father marks a historic moment in Anglican-Catholic relations and is centered on two key themes: Christian unity and care for the environment.”

At a Vatican press briefing last Friday, the Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Sister Alessandra Smerilli FMA, said: “This meeting underscores the strong relationship between the Catholic and Anglican Churches on environmental issues. . . Pope Francis often reminds us that everything is connected, and that environmental and social crises must be addressed together. Pope Leo has continued this approach with further action.”