Pope Leo XIV and the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, preside over the ecumenical prayer dedicated to the defense of the environment in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, in which the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, Charles III and Camilla, participate, a historic event that takes place after almost 500 years of the Anglican reform.
Before the frescoes of Michelangelo and Botticelli, with the backdrop of the Last Judgment, Charles III, in a blue suit, and Camilla, in a black dress and veil, sat to the left of the altar, next to Leo XIV and the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who occupied the central part.
The Pope will be in charge of presiding over the prayer along with Cottrell, since the head of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, will not begin her term until January and therefore did not participate in this visit.
Before this act, Leo XIV and the British kings met privately for about 45 minutes in the Apostolic Library. Charles III gave the Pope a large silver photograph and an icon of Saint Edward, ‘the Confessor’, and, for his part, the pontiff donated a scale version of the mosaic of ‘Christ Pantocrator’ from the Norman Cathedral of Cefalù, in Sicily, made in the Vatican workshops.
This is the first time a British monarch and the Pope have prayed together since the Anglican Reformation, when in 1534 the then British King Henry VIII broke with Rome after the frustrated attempt to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, something to which Pope Clement VII did not agree, which led him to proclaim himself supreme head of the Church of England.
The celebration began with the singing of the hymn, a text by Saint Ambrose of Milan in Latin, which Charles II and Queen Camilla received with the English translation by Saint John Henry Newman, an Anglican who converted to Catholicism and who will be declared a Doctor of the Church on November 1st.
And she continued with a reading from the Letter to the Romans by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yvette Cooper.
The Sistine Chapel Choir, the Chapel of St George’s Windsor and the Children’s Choir of the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace were also heard.
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Afterwards, the Archbishop of York and the Pope took the floor to read together in English the short prayer dedicated to Creation.
Upon completion of the celebration, the king, accompanied by the pope, will move to the Sala Regia, a room adjacent to the Sistine Chapel, where they will meet with representatives of climate organizations and leaders from the private sector who have been working with the Sustainable Markets Initiative, which Charles III founded as Prince of Wales.
Carlos III will receive the title of ‘Royal Confrater’ (Royal Brother) and a special seat decorated with his coat of arms will be placed where he will sit during the act of the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura.
And, in return, with the approval of the British monarch, the Dean and Canons of Saint George’s College, Windsor, offered Leo XIV to become a papal member of the Chapel of Saint George of Windsor Castle, something the pope has accepted.
These mutual gifts “are an acknowledgment of spiritual communion and are a profound symbol of the path that the Church of England (of which Her Majesty is Supreme Governor) and the Roman Catholic Church have traveled during the last 500 years,” Buckingham Palace reported.
There will also be an exchange of honors: the king will confer upon the pope the honor of Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Vatican Order of Pope Pius IX, while the pontiff will confer upon the queen the honor of Dame Grand Cross of the same Order.
