Queen to make informal visit to Pope Francis

The Queen is to meet Pope Francis on 3 April in an informal visit at the Vatican, Buckingham Palace announced this week. 

Her meeting with Pope Francis will take place during her first overseas trip for three years.

A palace spokeswoman confirmed that the meeting would take place at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, Pope Francis’ residence which is also a guesthouse and a home for clergy who work in the Vatican.

Normally heads of state meet the Pope in the grander setting of the Apostolic Palace.

The Queen, 87, who will be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, 92, is travelling to Rome at the invitation of the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano. The Queen and the duke will have a private lunch with the 88-year-old president and in the afternoon be received in an audience with Pope Francis.

“They are going to be making an informal visit and are going to be in Rome for just a day,” the spokeswoman added. “They wanted to use it as an opportunity to meet the Pope.”

The low-key meeting will take place during Lent and it is understood the Queen will not wear black.

The Queen was due to travel to to Rome to meet President Napolitano last year but had to cancel due to sickness. Diplomatic sources said it would be unusual for her to visit the city without seeing the Pope – her last trip to Rome was in 2000 when she met John Paul II.

The Queen’s reign has overlapped with seven popes and Francis will be the fifth she has met, the fourth as monarch.

In 1951 she met Pius XII when she was still Princess Elizabeth while 10 years later she was received by John XXIII.

In 1980 she became the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican, to see Pope John Paul II, and in 1982 made history again when she welcomed John Paul at Buckingham Palace during his British trip. 

Benedict XVI was the first Pope to receive a full state welcome from the UK when he visited Britain in 2010 and was hosted by the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

In her speech that day the Queen talked about the Catholic Church’s contribution to the “poorest and most deprived members of society.” She also talked about the Christian contribution to the “encouragement of world peace, and to the economic and social development of the less prosperous countries of the world.”

There has been a greater acceptance of Catholics in British society in the course of the Queen’s reign and her visit to Pope Francis coincides with the centenary year of the re-establishment of diplomatic ties between the UK and the Holy See.

The British Ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker, said: “It is under Queen Elizabeth II that the relationship can truly be said to have matured to its present, strong state.”

Cardinal-designate Vincent Nichols said he was “delighted” that the Queen was meeting the Pope adding that it was a moment for rejoicing.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who became the first Archbishop of Westminster to stay with the Queen at her Norfolk estate and to preach at the Sunday morning service, said: “It will be a most memorable and enjoyable meeting.”