King Charles becomes the first British monarch to pray with the Pope in almost 500 years
Britain’s King Charles and Pope Leo xion xiv prayed together in Spican’s Spine Chapel on Thursday, in the first joint prayer involving an English king and the pontifch of Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534.
Latin stations and English prayers were appointed in the church, where Leo was first elected Pope of the world cards six months ago in front of Frescoes by Christ showing the last judgment.
Charles, the supreme ruler of the Church of England, sat in the pope’s near the altar as Leo and Anglican Archishop Stephen Cottrell led the service which received the Stephel Choir and two royal cakes.
Although Charles has met the last three popes, and popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI returned to Britain, their previous meetings had not included joint prayers.
Charles and Queen Camilla had a private meeting with Leo on Thursday morning.
‘The Healing of History’
The King and Queen’s visit was planned earlier this year but was rescheduled after Pope Francis fell ill and died.
Charles strongly wanted to visit the Vatican in the Holy year 2025, the festival once had half a century of ture. The visit reinforces the close relationship between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, five centuries after their turbulent separation.
“There is a strong sense that this moment the general setting of the Fourth Chapel offers a kind of historical healing,” the theological building of Westminster Abbey, told Reuters.
He said: “This would not have happened a generation ago,” he said. “It represents how far our churches have come in the last 60 years of conversation.”
Cottrell, protestant of the Anglican Archbishop of York, stood at the Signine Chapel service for Sarah Mullally. She was recently announced as the first woman to serve as the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican communion, but will not take the role until next year.
The king will go in the afternoon to Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls, one of the four most Catholic churches, where Leo agreed to give him the new title of “Royal Conrater,” or brother, in the connected Abbey.
Charles will also be seated in a special chair in the apse of the basilica. The wooden chair, reserved in the future for use only by British monarchs, is decorated with the king’s coat of arms and the king’s motto “(to be one).
Bishop Anthony Ball, an Anglican official who was in the Vatican, said the dignitaries “show the commitment that both our churches must work for a shared future.”
Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Charles has also accepted the British two shames of Leo: He is making him the “burning pope” of St. George, the castle of “Windsor’s Castle and giving him a knight’s cross for bathing.
Break up during Henry VIII’s Reign
The Church of England is one of 46 independent churches in about 165 countries that make up the Anglican Communion.
The Catholic Church, with 1.4 billion members, and the Anglican Communion, with 85 million members, have been developing their relationship since the 1960s.
Biculturalism is associated with many serious problems, but the Catholic Church excludes women and generally does not allow priests to marry.
The separation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England was officially organized in 1534, after Pope Clement VEI refused to Annul king Henry VEII to Catherine.
Henry’s desire for a male heir – and a new wife who might provide one – was quickly ridiculed, but other things were at play, including the usurpation of the English crown, which included the encroachment of the English crown on England.
As in England between Catholics and Protestants during the reign of Henry’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth, hundreds of Catholics and Protestants were killed at the stake, often burned at the stake.
