Overview
- Pope Leone XIV and King Charles prayed in the Sistine Chapel in a bilingual service led with Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the first such papal‑royal prayer since the Reformation.
- Choirs from the Sistine Chapel, St George’s Chapel at Windsor, and the Chapel Royal at St James’s sang, with readings including Romans on hope; UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper delivered the epistle.
- Following the liturgy, the delegations met in the Sala Regia with faith and civic groups on the care of creation, aligning the visit with Jubilee themes and King Charles’s environmental focus.
- At St Paul Outside the Walls, Charles was named Royal Confrater with a permanent stall bearing his arms and the motto “Ut unum sint,” while the Pope accepted Papal Confrater status at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
- The visit included a formal exchange of honours: Charles conferred the Order of the Bath on the Pope, who awarded the King the Order of Pius IX with Collar, and the Queen received a Dame Grand Cross of the same Vatican order.