King Charles and Queen Camilla paid a surprise visit to Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday, despite having officially postponed the audience due to the pontiff’s poor health.
Their private meeting – confirmed by both the Vatican and Buckingham Palace – was the first time Charles, 76, had met with the Catholic leader since becoming monarch and also head of the Church of England in 2022.
Francis, 88, is convalescing at home in the Vatican after leaving hospital on March 23 following five weeks of treatment for pneumonia.
He is supposed to be avoiding any strenuous activity but made a surprise appearance on Sunday in St Peter’s Square at the end of mass.
A planned audience with the pope for the royal couple had been earlier postponed.
“Their Majesties were delighted the Pope was well enough to host them – and to have had the opportunity to share their best wishes in person,” a statement from Buckingham Palace said.
The Vatican said the pope had “expressed his best wishes to their majesties on the occasion of their wedding anniversary”, while also wishing the king “a speedy recovery of his health”.
The royal couple’s four-day trip to Italy had been itself thrown into doubt by the king’s own health scare.
Charles was briefly admitted to hospital on March 27 after experiencing temporary side effects from treatment for his cancer, which was announced last year.
The Church of England was established in the 16th century by Henry VIII, the king who broke with the Vatican over its refusal to grant an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
The split fuelled centuries of ensuing conflict, but in modern times relations between the Catholic church and the Church of England, often referred to as the Anglican Church, have been amicable. The pontiff, 88, is convalescing at home after a hospital stay, and a planned audience with the UK royal couple was earlier postponed
