500 years after Britain's then King Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic church over its refusal to sanction his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, 'his successor, King Charles III, prayed with Pope Leo XIV beneath the sublime frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in an act of rapprochement between the Catholic church and the Church of England', The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.
'We've come a very long way, but until now we haven't seen the supreme head of the Church of England -- that is, the monarch -- kneeling in prayer with the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics,' Catherine Pepinster, the author of The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy, was quoted as saying in The Guardian.
IMAGE: Pope Leo XIV leads an ecumenical prayer with Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell as Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla attend, in a historic first joint act of worship between an English monarch and a pope in 500 years in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, October 23, 2025, here and below. Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
IMAGE: Pope Leo, King Charles and Queen Camilla, following the ecumenical prayer in the Sistine Chapel. Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
IMAGE: Pope Leo, King Charles and Queen Camilla in the courtyard of San Damaso, following the ecumenical prayer in the Sistine Chapel, here and below. Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters
Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters
IMAGE: King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive to meet Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
IMAGE: Pope Leo meets with King Charles and Queen Camilla during a private audience at the Vatican, here and below. Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
Photograph: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
IMAGE: King Charles visits the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls, during his first State visit to the Holy See since Pope Leo XIV's election. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
Feature Presentation: Mahipal Soni/Rediff
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