VATICAN CITY, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Britain’s King Charles and Pope Leo prayed together in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday, marking the first joint prayer service involving a British monarch and a Catholic pope since King Henry VIII seceded from Rome in 1534.
Latin chants and English prayers echoed through the chapel as Leo was elected by the world’s Catholic cardinals to become the first U.S. pope six months ago, standing in front of Michelangelo’s fresco depicting Christ administering the Last Judgment.
Charles, the Anglican supreme governor, sat to the left of the pope near the chapel’s altar as Leo and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led the service, which featured the Sistine Chapel choir and two royal choirs.
Charles has met with three previous popes, with John Paul II and Benedict XVI also visiting the UK, but none of their previous meetings have included communal prayer.
A visit to the Vatican serves as a “healing” for a turbulent history
Camilla and Camilla are making an official visit to the Vatican to commemorate the close ties between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church, five centuries after their tumultuous separation.
“There is a strong sense that this moment in the extraordinary surroundings of the Sistine Chapel offers a kind of historical healing,” Anglican Chaplain James Hawkey, the church theologian at Westminster Abbey, told Reuters.
“This would not have been possible just a generation ago,” he says. “This shows how far our church has come in the past 60 years of dialogue.”
Cottrell, the Anglican Archbishop of York, was Sarah Mulally’s deputy at the service in the Sistine Chapel. She was recently announced as the first woman to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Church’s spiritual leader, but she will not take up the role until next year.
The schism between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church was formalized in 1534 after Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Henry’s desire for a male heir and a new wife who might provide one was the immediate trigger, but other factors were also at play, such as the confiscation of church property by the British Crown and the growth of Protestant thought in England.
When England oscillated between Catholicism and Protestantism during the reigns of Henry’s daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I, hundreds of Catholics and Protestants were executed for their faith, often at the stake.
Charles receives a special title and is seated in the basilica.
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, who visited the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis earlier this year, also met privately with Mr Leo on Thursday morning. Back home in Britain, Charles’ disgraced younger brother Prince Andrew is embroiled in a deepening crisis over abuse allegations and ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The king is scheduled to visit Rome’s Extramural Basilica of St. Paul (one of the four most revered Catholic churches) in the afternoon, where Leo approved giving him the new title of “Royal Member”, or brother, in the connected monastery.
Charles will also be given a special seat in the apse of the cathedral. This wooden chair is reserved for future use by British monarchs and is adorned with the royal coat of arms and the ecumenical motto “Ut unum sint” (May they be one).
Bishop Anthony Ball, the Anglican’s official representative to the Vatican, said the honor “demonstrates that the churches of both countries must work towards a common future.”
Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Prince Charles had also approved two British honors for Leo: making him a “Papal Fellow” of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and making him a Knight of the Order of the Bath Grand Cross.
Anglican-Catholic relations improving since the 1960s
The Church of England is one of 46 autonomous churches that make up the Anglican Communion in approximately 165 countries.
The Catholic Church, which has 1.4 billion members, and the Anglican Church, which has 85 million members, have improved relations since the 1960s.
Although the teachings of the two traditions agree on many key issues, the Catholic Church does not ordain women and generally does not allow priests to marry.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
