King Charles and Queen Camilla, while on a state visit to Italy, have met Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The visit took place at Casa Santa Marta, a guesthouse in the Vatican where the Pope is currently convalescing.
It coincided with the King’s 20th wedding anniversary and with the fourth anniversary of the death of his father, Prince Philip.
Pope Francis left Rome’s Gemelli Hospital just over two weeks ago. The pontiff was hospitalised for nearly 40 days with double pneumonia. During what he called his “period of trial”, there was great uncertainty about the 88-year-old Pope’s prognosis.
The King also has his own health concerns. At the end of last month, he was hospitalised due to the side effects of cancer treatment. The King was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago. The exact nature of his cancer has not been publicly revealed, although it has been confirmed that he is not suffering from prostate cancer.
In a statement, the Holy See Press Office said, “Pope Francis met privately with Their Majesties, King Charles and Queen Camilla, this afternoon. In the course of the meeting, the Pope expressed his best wishes to Their Majesties on the occasion of their wedding anniversary and reciprocated His Majesty’s wishes for a speedy recovery of his health.”
The meeting between the King, who is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the Pope was thrown into doubt due to the latter’s ongoing recovery. On 24 March Buckingham Palace said that a meeting would in fact not take place, as the Pope had not yet recovered sufficiently from his ordeal.
King Charles previously met Pope Francis in 2019 when, as Prince of Wales, he attended the canonisation ceremony of Cardinal Newman at the Vatican.
Cardinal Newman was originally a priest in the Church of England during the 19th century. However, he later converted to Roman Catholicism and was elevated to the position of cardinal. His canonisation in 2019 marked the first time in 40 years that a British person was elevated to sainthood.
