Charles and Camilla to meet Pope during state visit, Buckingham Palace confirms

The King and Queen’s planned state visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis will go ahead despite the pontiff’s continuing hospital treatment for double pneumonia.

The improving outlook for the Pope means the historic gathering is scheduled to take place in Rome in early April to celebrate the papal jubilee and the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Church of England.

A Buckingham Palace source said they had shared “our hopes and prayers that Pope Francis’s health will enable the visit to go ahead”.

The tour from April 7 to 10 will include two state visits, to Rome and Ravenna in Italy, and separately the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church, in the Vatican – the smallest independent state in the world.

Charles will pass two milestone, becoming the first British monarch to visit the Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, the resting place of St Paul since the reformation, and address both houses of Italy’s parliament.

The King will hold audiences with Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the monarch and his wife will attend a black-tie state banquet at the Palazzo Quirinale, hosted by the president.

At the weekend the Vatican released the first photograph of the Pope since he was admitted to hospital on February 14 with a severe case of bronchitis, which developed into double pneumonia.

Medical staff said last week that the pontiff, 88, was no longer in a critical, life-threatening condition, but added that his condition remained complex due to his age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of a lung as a young man.

The state visit was announced just over a week before the Pope was admitted to hospital. Charles has written privately to Francis since he was taken ill, and is likely to have wished him a speedy recovery.

Charles, supreme governor of the Church of England, last met the Pope in 2019 when he was the Prince of Wales, for the canonisation of Cardinal John Henry Newman.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “On Tuesday 8 April, and clearly subject to Pope Francis’s health, their majesties will visit the Holy See to join Pope Francis in celebrating the 2025 jubilee.

“Held traditionally once every 25 years, the jubilee is a special year for the Catholic Church; a year of reconciliation, prayer and walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, which is the jubilee’s theme.

“The King and Queen will have an audience with Pope Francis. Their Majesties will also attend a service in the Sistine Chapel, focused on the theme of ‘care for creation’, reflecting Pope Francis’s and His Majesty’s long-standing commitment to nature.”

Other highlights of the trip will see the UK and Italy’s defence co-operation marked by a joint flypast over Rome by the Italian Air Force’s aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, and by the RAF’s Red Arrows.

In Ravenna, near Bologna, Charles and Camilla will mark the 80th anniversary of the province’s liberation from Nazi occupation by Allied forces on April 10 1945 during a town hall reception, and will celebrate literary culture by visiting Dante’s tomb, with the Queen making a solo trip to the Byron museum.

Published: 18/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub