UK King to Pray with Pope for First Time in Five Centuries

King Charles III embarks on a landmark state visit to the Vatican, where he will meet Pope Leo XIV and make history as the first head of the Church of England to publicly pray with the pontiff since the great schism between the two churches 500 years ago.

The visit comes at a sensitive time for the British monarch, following renewed controversy surrounding his brother Prince Andrew’s ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Accompanied by Queen Camilla, Charles’s meeting with Pope Leo marks their first since Leo succeeded the late Pope Francis earlier this year.

The joint prayer ceremony — the first of its kind since Henry VIII’s break from the Catholic Church — symbolizes a rare and powerful gesture of unity and reconciliation between two faiths divided for centuries.