King Charles, accompanied by Queen Camilla, arrived at the Vatican today for an official two-day visit, for his first meeting with Pope Leo since his election last May.

At the reception of Britain’s royal couple in San Damaso, the Swiss Guard was lined up while the hymn “God save the King.”

76-year-old King Charles is also head of the Church of England.

In an extremely historic and symbolic moment of ecumenism, Charles prayed together with the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Sistine Chapel – the first joint prayer by an English monarch and a Catholic pontiff since King Henry VIII broke away from Rome in 1534.

Although Charles has met the last three popes, their previous meetings never included joint prayers.

The ecumenical service, presided over by Pope Leo XIV, combined the Catholic and Anglican traditions and marks a new rapprochement between the two Churches, to an unprecedented extentwhich has not been observed since the “birth” of Anglicanism in 1534.

The ecumenical prayer for the protection of the environment lasted about 30 minutes and together with the pope, the archbishop of York officiated in it.

Camila in black, according to protocol

Queen Camilla was dressed in black, with a gown and veil, based on “il privilegio del bianco” (“the privilege of white”) – the little-known papal protocol that allows just seven women worldwide to wear white when meeting the Pope.

The “white privilege” has been given exclusively to 7 Catholic queens and princesses of Europe.

The only blue-bloods allowed to wear white before the Pope are: Princess Charlene of Monaco, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Queen Letitia of Spain, Grand Duchess Maria Theresa of Luxembourg and Princess Marina of Naples.

Also, two queens whose husbands no longer reign have the white privilege: Queen Sofia of Spain and Queen Paola of Belgium.

For this reason, Queen Camilla wore a black dress to the meeting with the Pope, as she did in April 2025, when the royal couple met the late Pope Francis.