By Joy Essien, Contributing Editor
Charles and Camilla were seen during the official state visit to Vatican City on Oct. 23, 2025, where they met with Pope Leo XIV at the Apostolic Palace. King Charles and Queen Camilla publicly prayed with the Pope for the first time since the English Reformation.The meeting for prayer between King Charles, Queen Camilla and Pope Leo is highly significant as a similar ceremony has not happened for centuries. Charles is supreme Governor for the Church of England and has longed for building bridges with other faiths. The 2 were seen shaking hands in the St. Damasus Courtyard at the Vatican after a state visit and shared prayer at the Sistine Chapel.
A symbolization of the mending of a 500 year rift, this visit closed a wound that has festered for half a millennium. The reality is wars have raged for centuries between Catholics and Protestants in Britain. Even the Queen, who met the previous Pope, wanted to pray with him and was advised, at the time years ago, that this would not go down well with the Church of England.
The story begins in the 16th century with King Henry VIII of England. Married to Catherine of Aragon, Henry desperately wanted a male heir. When the Pope refused to annul his marriage so he could wed Anne Boleyn, Henry broke up with Rome in 1534, declared himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and seized the vast lands and wealth of the monasteries. That act, known as the English Reformation, turned from being a marital dispute to the birth of a new church. The split redrew the map of Christianity and England became Protestant. Over Anne Boleyn, wars were fought, martyrs burned, Queens rose and fell trying to steer England’s soul back to Rome or farther away.
Across the 16th and 17th centuries, more than 300,000 lives were lost in wars, uprisings, executions and persecutions linked directly or indirectly to the Reformation’s religious divide. Even long after the flames cooled, the chill between Canterbury and the Vatican remained. Over time, dialogue replaced hostility. Popes and archbishops began speaking again in the 20th century, starting with cautious ecumenical steps after World War II. Anne Boleyn ended up not giving King Henry a male child and was eventually beheaded by the King for treason.
During their visit, the royal couple was seen seated beside Pope Leo XIV during a joint prayer service. The backdrop featured Michelangelo’s famed “The Last Judgement” fresco, emphasising the solemnity and historical resonance of the event. King Charles would become the first reigning English monarch to pray publicly with a Pope since Henry VIII.
