King Charles, the head of Church of England, prays publicly with Pope in a 500-year first

Britain’s King Charles III and Pope Leo prayed together in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Thursday, in the first joint worship including an English monarch, who is also head of the Church of England, and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke away from Rome in 1534. English prayers and Latin chants echoed through the chapel, where Leo was elected the first pope from the US by the world’s Catholic cardinals six months ago. Charles, supreme governor of the Church of England, was seated at the pope’s left near the altar of the chapel as Leo and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led a service that featured the Sistine Chapel Choir and two royal choirs. King Charles had met the last three popes, and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI even travelled to Britain, but they never had joint prayers. King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the Vatican earlier this year to see Pope Francis. They also had a private meeting with Leo on Thursday morning.

King Charles will travel to Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Catholicism’s four most venerated churches, in the afternoon. where Leo has approved giving him a new title of “Royal Confrater”, or brother, at the connected abbey.

Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Charles had also approved two British honours for Leo: making him the “Papal Confrater” of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and conferring on him the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

Charles will also be gifted a special seat in the apse of the basilica. The wooden chair, reserved in the future for use only by British monarchs, is decorated with the king’s coat of arms and the ecumenical motto “Ut unum sint” (That they may be one).

King Charles’ Vatican visit marks improvement in ties

King and Queen Camilla’s state visit to the Vatican marks an improvement of ties between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, five centuries after their separation.

The split between the Catholic Church and the Church of England was formalized in 1534, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Also Read: Thieves used ‘cherry picker’, ‘angle grinder’ in 7-minute Louvre Museum heist, pulled off like a breeze

Henry’s desire for a male heir—and a new wife who might provide one—was the immediate catalyst, but other factors like the English crown’s seizure of church assets and the growth of Protestant ideas in England were also at play.

The teachings of the Catholics and Protestants align on many major issues, but the Catholic Church does not ordain women and generally does not allow priests to marry.