Lenten Campaign 2025
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“On Tuesday 8th April, Their Majesties will visit the Holy See to join Pope Francis in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee,” announced Buckingham Palace on March 18, 2025. "The King and Queen will have an audience with Pope Francis."
As Pope Francis has been hospitalized at the Gemelli hospital for over a month, this announcement seems to indicate that doctors expect his improvements in health to continue, such that he will be able to resume his audiences.
The trip by King Charles III of England and his wife Queen Camilla had been announced at the beginning of February, but neither the dates nor the program had been revealed.
In addition to the audience with Pope Francis, the king and queen will attend a ceremony in the Sistine Chapel dedicated to the theme of "care for creation.” This sequence will reflect "Pope Francis’ and His Majesty’s long-standing commitment to Nature," the press release explains.
It also states:
In an historic first, His Majesty, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, will also visit the Papal Basilica of ‘St. Paul’s Outside the Walls’, with which English Kings had a particular link until the Reformation. ‘St Paul’s Outside the Walls’ is recognised as the Papal Basilica where reconciliation, ecumenism and relationships across the Christian faith are celebrated.
Charles III will also attend a reception with seminarians from the Commonwealth and members of the British community at the Vatican. It is very likely that British Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Holy See, will participate.
Finally, the King of England will meet with nuns from the International Union of Superiors General, who work all over the world to promote women through education programs, better access to healthcare, climate action, and the prevention of sexual violence and human trafficking.
Towards a return of audiences for the Pope
This visit by the royal couple would mark a return of audiences for the Pope, who is still hospitalized. He has not appeared in public since February 14, and all his engagements have been suspended. At 88 years of age, the Argentine pontiff is still on a ventilator, and his doctors have not given a date for his release from the hospital.
Doctors have said that his state of health remains complex but that the Pope is no longer in “imminent danger” since March 10.
On Sunday, the Vatican released the first photo of the Pope at Gemelli. In the profile shot, the pontiff is seen praying in his private hospital chapel.
Not a first meeting
Charles III's visit to Rome will be his first as sovereign, but as crown prince he has already been to the Vatican five times. This trip will take place exactly 20 years to the day after the funeral of John Paul II, in which Prince Charles took part. That event caused the postponement of his wedding to Camilla by one day, and it was celebrated the following day.
In April 2017, Prince Charles was granted an audience with Pope Francis. He returned to the Vatican to attend the canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman in October 2019.
Beyond the formal meeting between two heads of state, this visit will also take on an ecumenical dimension insofar as the British sovereign is the supreme head of the Anglican Church. Following a long process of consultation within the Anglican Communion, it will be his responsibility to appoint the new Anglican primate in the coming months, after the resignation of Justin Welby, effective since January 6.
Charles III and Camilla will also make a state visit to Italy, and will take part in several events in Rome and Ravenna, in order to strengthen bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and Italy.
