Cottrell, the Anglican Archbishop of York, stood in at the Sistine Chapel service for Sarah Mullally. She was recently announced as the first woman to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, but will not take the role until next year.
The split between the Catholic Church and the Church of England was formalised in 1534, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
King Charles III, second from right, and Queen Camilla, right, attend a joint prayer with Pope Leo XIV in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.Credit: AP
Henry’s desire for a male heir – and a new wife who might provide one – was the immediate catalyst, but other factors were also at play, involving the English crown’s seizure of church assets and the growth of Protestant ideas in England.
As England swung between Catholicism and Protestantism during the reigns of Henry’s daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I, hundreds of Catholics and Protestants were executed for their faith, often burned at the stake.
Charles to receive special title, seat at basilica
Charles and Camilla, who visited the Vatican earlier this year to see Pope Francis, also had a private meeting with Leo on Thursday morning. At home in Britain, Charles’ disgraced brother Prince Andrew is engulfed in a deepening crisis over abuse allegations and his ties with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Loading
The King will travel in the afternoon to Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Catholicism’s four most venerated churches, where Leo has approved giving him a new title of “Royal Confrater”, or brother, at the connected abbey.
Charles will also be gifted a special seat 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 ecumenical motto “Ut unum sint” (That they may be one).
Bishop Anthony Ball, the official Anglican representative to the Vatican, said the honours “show the commitment that both of our Churches have to working for a shared future.”
Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Charles had also approved two British honours for Leo: making him the “Papal Confrater” of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and conferring on him the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
Anglican-Catholic ties improving since 1960s
The Church of England is one of 46 autonomous churches across some 165 countries that together form the Anglican Communion.
The Catholic Church, which has 1.4 billion members, and the Anglican Communion, with 85 million members, have been improving their ties since the 1960s.
The teachings of the two traditions align on many major issues, but the Catholic Church does not ordain women and generally does not allow priests to marry.
Reuters
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
