By Catherine Pepinster
It is now 40 years since The King, as Prince of Wales, planned with the help of Vatican officials and the full support of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, to attend a Roman Catholic Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II.
The heir to the throne was going to be in Rome with his wife, Diana, and the intention was that they would visit the Polish pope.
Runcie, who had hosted John Paul at Canterbury Cathedral for an ecumenical service three years earlier in 1982 during the Pope’s pastoral visit to Britain, was enthusiastic and believed the time was right for such an ecumenical gesture in the heart of Rome.
Only the “lunatic fringe”, he told the Prince, would object, perhaps mindful of the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland who had written to complain, saying of his Canterbury encounter with the pontiff: “We fear that the false and blasphemous claims of the papacy may be given more credence by Your Royal Highness’ attendance at this service.”
But this time, Runcie was wrong. It wasn’t only Scottish Presbyterians or Ulstermen who worried about the future Supreme Governor of the Church of England getting too cosy with the Pope.
It also bothered the Queen, Elizabeth II, who feared it was a step too far. She had previously indicated some reluctance about the Canterbury event, urging Charles to attend but not participate.
If participation in an ecumenical service in the mother church of the Church of England was a bridge too far, then attending a Roman Catholic Mass was seemingly, for the Queen, a ticking time bomb.
At the time she was mulling over the religious service, Brian Mulroney, the Canadian Prime Minister and a Catholic, was visiting and she asked his opinion. Mulroney did not perceive it as a problem, but he later recalled that the Queen was not going to approve of anything that “might undermine the monarch’s integrity as head of the Church of England”.
Times have changed
How times have changed. This week, the King, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, will pray publicly with Pope Leo XIV at a special ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel, the place where a conclave is held to elect a pope.
The state visit of the King and Queen Camilla to the Vatican is an historic occasion. The King and the Pope will pray togetehr in the Sistine Chapel, the first time a British monarch and pontiff will have prayed alongside one another since the Reformation.
The theme of the service will be care of creation – bringing together a longstanding concern of the King and of Pope Leo, and indeed his predecessor Pope Francis.
It will also focus on church unity – symbolically expressed by the choir of the Sistine Chapel singing alongside the children of the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal and the Choir of St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
The Sistine Chapel service will be one of the highlights of the very brief state visit of the King and Queen Camilla to the Vatican.
There are many reasons for it. One is that this is a delayed visit. There was supposed to be a state visit to the Vatican in the spring, but Pope Francis was seriously ill and it had to be cancelled, with the King and Queen having a private audience with him just days before he died. Now his successor, Leo XIV, elected on 8 May, will be the royal couple’s host.
Ecumenical relations
Then there is the boost to ecumenical relations. The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church have been engaged in warmer relations for decades, healing the lingering scars of the Reformation.
There are regular visits to Rome by Archbishops of Canterbury who by tradition since Michael Ramsey’s time have stayed in the English College seminary. Its rector, Stephen Wang, has already said that the newly appointed Sarah Mullally is welcome to say there.
Catholics and Anglicans engage together via the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s own ‘embassy’, the Anglican Centre in Rome, has worked for nearly 60 years to liaise with the Vatican, and it has been pushing for years for the ancient links between the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls – which hosts the annual major service of Christian unity week – and Britain to be revived. This will happen during the King’s visit when he attends the Basilica, be made a “confrater of St Paul” and receive a special chair which will be kept there for him.
Then there is the Foreign Office. No visit of this kind goes ahead without Foreign Office say-so and they see it as vital to connecting with the Vatican and its soft power, especially regarding peace, security and the environment.
Charles’ personal journey
But above all this is about a personal spiritual odyssey of the King who appears to have become increasingly enthusiastic about engaging with the Roman Catholic Church.
2025 has proved a landmark year for strengthening the King’s links to the Roman Catholic Church, encompassing moments of constitutional, family and ecumenical significance.
There was the decision to appoint Lady Eilish Angiolini, a leading Scottish lawyer and Roman Catholic to be his representative – the Lord High Commissioner – to the Church of Scotland’s general assembly.
The King’s choice led to an end to a discriminatory ban on Catholics taking the role, which had been in place since 1829 when other public offices became open to Catholics after the Emancipation Act of that year. A special act of parliament had to be put in place, so his choice was permitted – a triumph for equality of religious belief.
Then there was his visit to the home of John Henry Newman, the Anglican clergyman who shocked Victorian society when he became a Roman Catholic. Charles had attended his canonisation in Rome in 2019, writing an article for the Vatican paper, L’Osservatore Romano, in which he expressed delight in Newman’s ideas about the importance of harmony – a concept close to Charles’ own heart.
This time, the visit to Newman’s home, and the church he founded, the Birmingham Oratory, came just weeks before Newman was made a Doctor of the Church – an honour acknowledging the importance of his teaching, wisdom, and intellect, and the first Englishman to be so honoured since the Venerable Bede.
And finally, there was the King’s decision to lead his family in attending the Requiem Mass for the Duchess of Kent, a convert to Rome, at Westminster Cathedral.
Elizabeth II never attended a Mass in Britain, only attending one abroad when she visited Brussels for the Reqiuem of her great friend, King Baudoiun. Again, she was displaying caution.
So what makes her son seemingly so much more open in his approach to the Catholic Church and that bit more engaged?
The King has long shown a great interest in religion as a whole, and is known to have a particular interest in Islam, a sympathy for Judaism, and a family feeling for Greek Orthodoxy – his paternal grandmother became an Orthodox nun in later years, and his father was baptised in the Greek Orthodox Church.
But his regard for church institutions has at times wavered. He was seemingly alienated from the Church of England for some years when some Anglican clergymen openly criticised his fitness to inherit the throne given his marital difficulties.
There were previous visits to Rome, particularly a visit to Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 when he seemed uninterested and the conversation lasted just 15 minutes.
Then in 2010, when Pope Benedict made a state visit to the UK, the Prince appeared to go missing in action. Sources say that his mother wanted him to meet the Pope when he arrived at Edinburgh Airport but he declined, and she sent her husband instead.
Other members of the Royal Family also gathered at Holyrood for the papal visit. There was talk of Charles wanting to host a discussion on inter-religious dialogue, but it never happened.
Why relations have thawed
Since then, several reasons have been given for better relations. One is Queen Camilla. She joined the Prince in his visit in 2009 and again in 2012. Vatican officials found her warm and engaging.
Camilla is no stranger to Catholicism. She was married in a Catholic church to Andrew Parker-Bowles and their children were raised as Catholics.
On her second visit to Rome she sought out the headteacher of her daughter’s school, by then working in Rome. Her ease around Catholics and familiarity with the Church is said to have influenced the King.
Then there is the engagement over recent years with the Catholic charity, Aid To The Church In Need, which works with persecuted Christians. The King has attended many of its events, including services in Catholic churches and receptions and has hosted people it has helped at his Scottish home, Birkhall, as well as making private donations to help its work.
Sources say that he has been profoundly moved by the people he has met who have suffered for their faith and also by the commitment of those who work to help them. It seems to have bolstered his own faith.
Friends may do so too. At the time of his marriage to Diana, Robert Runcie described Charles somewhat disparagingly as “deeply into the Laurens van der Post spirituality” but he was equally influenced by the poet Kathleen Raine, a woman of varied spiritual beliefs including Roman Catholicism to which she converted.
Another Catholic person of influence is the Duke of Norfolk: it is custom for a Duke of Norfolk to preside over a Coronation.
In May 2022 – as it turned out, just a year before his Coronation, the then Prince of Wales attended an event at Archbishop’s House – home of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster – to mark the centenary of the Society of St Augustine, an organisation set up to look after the house. At the time, it seemed a rather recherche charity for the Prince to support, but its president is the Duke of Norfolk, a man who would loom large in the year ahead, following the death of Elizabeth II in September 2022.
The Coronation
The Coronation, with a few tweaks here and there, followed a pattern set down in previous times, with the monarch’s oath to uphold the Protestant religion. And in a television address following his accession to the throne, the King made it clear that he was most definitely an Anglican – but acknowledged the rich ethnic and religious mix of contemporary Britain.
But despite that and the Reformation, the Coronation service remained essentially a Catholic Mass – a Mass that the king’s regal forebears would also have participated in – and much like an ordination for a priest.
2023’s Coronation included touches that indicated not only a recognition of that heritage but also rapprochement too with the Roman Catholic Church.
Prayers were said by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Pope’s representative, the papal nuncio, attended, and a cross given by Pope Francis led the procession of the King as he made his way to the altar in Westminster Abbey to be anointed – and promise to uphold Protestantism. This could be interpreted as mixed messages – or ecumenism in practice.
The title that the King inherited when he acceded to the throne – Defender of the Faith – was one first given to an English king – Henry VIII – by a grateful pope. As this King heads to Rome, he may well be feeling the (Catholic) hand of history upon his shoulder.
Catherine Pepinster is the author of Defenders of the Faith – the British monarchy, religion and the next Coronation. She is now working on a book about British Catholics 1829-2029.
