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LONDON: King Charles III leaves for a state visit to the Vatican Wednesday, where he will meet Pope Leo XIV and make history as the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with the pontiff since the schism between the churches 500 years ago.
The visit comes at a delicate time for the British king following new revelations about his brother, Prince Andrew, who is mired in a scandal surrounding late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Charles and Queen Camilla will meet Leo for the first time since he succeeded the late pope Francis in May.
On Thursday, Charles and Leo will pray together in the first such public religious moment since Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church after the then pope refused to annul his marriage to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon.
In 1961, the king’s mother, the late queen Elizabeth II, became the first British monarch to visit the Holy See since the 16th-century fracture.
The two-day visit will “mark a significant moment in relations between the Catholic Church and Church of England, of which His Majesty is Supreme Governor,” Buckingham Palace said.
Thursday’s ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel will be held under the magnificent ceiling adorned with the paintings by Michelangelo.
Its main theme will be conservation and protecting the environment, a cause which has been Charles’s life work.
It will bring together Catholic and Anglican traditions, with the choir from the Sistine Chapel being joined by that from Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, one of the residences of the king and queen.

- ‘Spiritual communion’ -

“It is a historic event principally because the king is supreme governor of the Church of England and required by law to be a Protestant,” said William Gibson, professor of theology at Oxford Brookes university.
“From 1536 to 1914 there were no formal diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See, and the mission was only upgraded to an embassy in 1982,” he told AFP.
Charles and Queen Camilla are also set to take part in an ecumenical religious service at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, part of a symbolic visit underscoring ties between the Anglican and Catholic Churches.
During the Vatican visit, the king will be formally made a “Royal Confrater” of the abbey adjoining the basilica — a gesture Buckingham Palace described as recognizing a “spiritual communion” between the two denominations.
A specially designed seat for Charles III will be installed in the basilica and preserved for use by future British monarchs.
The visit coincides with preparations for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year, held every 25 years, which draws millions of pilgrims to the Vatican.
It also comes a day after the publication of the posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre who alleges she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with the king’s younger brother Prince Andrew on three occasions, including twice when she was just 17.
Andrew announced on Friday he would relinquish his title as Duke of York, reportedly under pressure from Charles. He had already stepped back from royal duties in 2019.
The 76-year-old king meanwhile continues to receive treatment for cancer, which was publicly disclosed in early 2024.
The monarch is no stranger to the Vatican having visited the Holy See several times in the past.
He and Camilla met privately with pope Francis on April 9, just days before the pontiff’s death, during a state visit to Italy.

KYIV: Ukraine’s state security service has unveiled an upgraded sea drone it says can now operate anywhere in the Black Sea, carry heavier weapons and use artificial intelligence for targeting.
Ukraine has used the unmanned naval drones to target Russian shipping and infrastructure in the Black Sea. The Security Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym SBU, has credited strikes by the unmanned vessel known as the “Sea Baby” with forcing a strategic shift in Russia’s naval operations.
The range of the Sea Baby was expanded from 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), SBU said. It can carry up to 2,000 kilograms (about 4,400 pounds) of payload, SBU officials said.
At a demonstration attended by The Associated Press, variants included vessels fitted with a multiple-rocket launcher and another with a stabilized machine-gun turret.
SBU Brig. Gen. Ivan Lukashevych said the new vessels also feature AI-assisted friend-or-foe targeting systems and can launch small aerial attack drones and multilayered self-destruct systems to prevent capture.
Developing a new kind of naval warfare
Drone strikes have been used in successful attacks against 11 Russian vessels, including frigates and missile carriers, SBU said, prompting the Russian navy to relocate its main base from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast.
“The SBU became the first in the world to pioneer this new kind of naval warfare – and we continue to advance it,” Lukashevych said, adding that the Sea Baby has evolved from a single-use strike craft into a reusable, multipurpose platform that expands Ukraine’s offensive options.
Authorities asked that the time and location of the demonstration not be made public for security reasons.
The craft are operated remotely from a mobile control center inside a van, where operators use a bank of screens and controls.
“Cohesion of the crew members is probably the most important thing. We are constantly working on that,” said one operator who was identified only by his call sign, “Scout,” per Ukrainian military protocol.
Ukrainian sea drones helped push back Russia’s navy
The SBU also said sea drones helped carry out other high-profile strikes, including repeated attacks on the Crimean Bridge, most recently targeting its underwater supports in a bid to to render it unusable for heavy military transport.
The Sea Baby program is partially funded by public donations through a state-run initiative and is coordinated with Ukraine’s military and political leadership.
The evolution from expendable strike boats to reusable, networked drones marks an important advance in asymmetric naval warfare, Lukashevych said.
“On this new product, we have installed rocket weaponry that will allow us to work from a large distance outside of the attack range of enemy fire. We can use such platforms to carry heavy weaponry,” he said. “Here we can show Ukrainians the most effective use of the money they have donated to us.”