Pope and Queen meet

THE?QUEEN was due to meet Pope Francis on Thursday, making him the fifth Pope she has met in her lifetime and the fourth as monarch, writes James Macintyre.

The Queen, 87, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 92, were set to be greeted by the Pope at his guest house, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, for an afternoon audience. In her first overseas trip for three years, the Queen was due earlier in the day to have lunch with Italy’s 88-year-old president, Giorgio Napolitano, who invited the royal couple to Rome in what Buckingham Palace has described as an “informal” visit.

The Queen’s reign has overlapped with seven Popes. In 1951, while still Princess Elizabeth, she met Pius XII, and 10 years later she was received by John XXIII. She became the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican in 1980, when she met Pope John Paul II, and two years later hosted him at Buckingham Palace during John Paul’s visit to Britain.  In 2010, the Queen welcomed Benedict XVI to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh at the start of his visit to the UK, the first with full state visit status. The Queen and Prince Philip are also due to make a three-day state visit to France in June.