Pope Leo XIV has been appointed Papal Confrater of the College of St George at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in what has been described as an act to promote Christian unity between the Anglican and Catholic churches.
The announcement was made by the Dean and Canons of Windsor and had the approval of King Charles III.
The Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) described the appointment as “a visible sign of spiritual fellowship, ecumenical friendship and Christian fraternity” and a recognition of the historic links between the College and Chapel of St George, Windsor and the Vatican.
As well as recognising the institutional relationship, the appointment was billed as a recognition of the personal relationship between the King and the Pope.
Last year the King visited the Pope in Rome and was given the title of Royal Confrater of the Papal Basilica and Abbey of St Paul’s Outside the Walls. Their relationship was described by the ACNS as one of “deep mutual esteem” that is built on a “shared desire for Christian unity”.
During the visit the King and the Pope took part in an ecumenical prayer service in the Sistine Chapel, the first act of joint worship between an English monarch and a Pope in over 500 years.
The royal appointment of the Pope as Papal Confrater is a direct reciprocation of the Pope’s appointment of the King as Royal Confrater. Physical manifestations of the appointments have also been made, with a specially commissioned chair for the King being placed in St Paul’s Outside the Walls and a corresponding chair for the Pope at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
ACNS said of the appointments, “Mindful of the value of Christian unity, in an increasingly polarised and turbulent world, The King and The Pope have joined together in Christian brotherhood and, for the first time in half a millennium, are receiving religious titles which underscore what unites rather than what separates the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.”
