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The State Visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Pope Leo XIV, the Disregard for Religious Rights of the Roman Catholic Church and Numerous Open PR Questions
King Charles III and Queen Camilla paid a state visit to Pope Leo XIV on October 23, 2025. The head of the Anglican Church and the head of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated an ecumenical prayer (not a church service) for the care of creation together for the first time in over 500 years. This issue has been dear to King Charles III's heart for decades. He is a very active environmentalist. Nothing is known about Pope Leo XIV on this topic.
King Charles III had apparently previously, and apparently without the presence of Pope Leo XIV, been given the newly invented title of "Royal Confrater," from monarch to monarch. Pope Leo XIV, who lived in Peru for 24 years, considers himself very traditional, enjoys displaying all the status symbols of a middle-class US-American (a VW instead of a Fiat, a newly built tennis court in Castel Gandolfo, riding through Peru like a cowboy in the Wild West), and since May 2025 has occupied every title and theme the Roman Catholic Church has to offer in its 2,000-year history, without having had the slightest prior involvement with it.
For King Charles III, the state visit to Pope Leo XIV was less a religious event and much more a personal triumph. King Charles III is divorced. Queen Camilla is divorced. Queen Camilla is the reason for the breakup of his marriage to Princess Diana. With the ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel, King Charles III once again showed his lifelong beloved Camilla where his love could take her: right into the Vatican and to the Pope.
Vatican News and dpa are omitting this important detail either because they don't want to admit it or because they don't know how to deal with it.(1) Divorce is not possible under Roman Catholic Canon Law. Apparently, there was no press release on this matter that Pope Leo XIV would have had to authorize. This could be the reason why Pope Leo XIV was not present at the awarding of the honorary title "Royal Confrater," newly created especially for King Charles, at San Paolo fuori le mura. The real reason is unknown.
Spicy is that the separation of the Anglican Church from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 was brought about by the Act of Supremacy of King Henry VIII because Pope Clement VII had refused to annul King Henry VIII's first marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon.
In 1536, all monasteries in England were dissolved, and their property and assets were transferred to the Crown. There is no official statement from Pope Leo XIV regarding this immense loss of wealth or its compensation. Even today, the British Crown's immense wealth is likely based on the expropriations of the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of the secession. King Charles III's wealth is estimated at 900 million pounds. His granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, who is third in line to the throne, is considered "the richest child in the world." Princess Charlotte, at the age of ten, is said to be extremely wealthy, despite earning nothing. Her economic market value is estimated at between €4.6 and €5 billion because she wears the same dress as her mother, Princess Catherine, at public appearances. She thus exceeds the market value of her two brothers.
It is customary for a gift to be presented during a state visit. Whether King Charles III brought Pope Leo XIV a glass of honey from his own apiary or homegrown vegetables to celebrate the preservation of creation is unknown. A generous donation by the British monarch to the Roman Catholic Church was not mentioned in the media. This detail was likely overlooked by 75-year-old Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in his preparations for the state visit.
There are still Catholics who lament the wealth losses caused by secularization and Napoleon's expropriation at the beginning of the 19th century. Cardinal Kurt Koch evidently made no reference to the immense economic losses for the Roman Catholic Church following the Act of Supremacy in 1534. At least, there is no press release or other publication on this subject.
The state visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Pope Leo XIV was thus a pleasant conversation in the Apostolic Palace with an ecumenical prayer for the care of creation in the Sistine Chapel, in violation of some important rights of the Roman Catholic Church (annulment of marriages, compensation for immense property losses) and with the conferral of a questionable, newly created title, granted by an absolute monarch to a monarch with an exclusively representative and ceremonial function.
It should not be forgotten that the head of the Roman Catholic Church has thus placed himself on the same level as a theological layman, who is the head of the Anglican Church.
October 24, 2025 Elke Göß
(1) Vgl. Royals: Charles und Camilla im Vatikan – warum der Staatsbesuch beim Papst historisch war, Royals: Charles und Camilla im Vatikan – warum der Staatsbesuch beim Papst historisch war, 24.10.2025