Pope Francis receives King and Queen at Vatican

Buckingham Palace said the King and Queen were ‘deeply touched’ by the Pope’s good wishes for their twentieth wedding anniversary.

The King and Queen met Pope Francis privately at the Vatican on Wednesday during their three-day state visit to Italy.

King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the Pope at his Casa Santa Marta residence. In a statement on Thursday, the Holy See Press Office said he offered them good wishes for their twentieth wedding anniversary that day, and wished the King “a speedy recovery of health”, referring to his treatment for cancer which saw him hospitalised at the end of March.

Buckingham Palace had said on 25 March that the royal visit to the Vatican – first announced on 7 February – was postponed “as medical advice has now suggested that Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest and recuperation” following his own five-week hospitalisation.

The King and Queen arrived in Italy on Monday to visit Ravenna and Rome, attending a reception at the Quirinale Palace with the Italian President Sergio Matarella, a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and a display at the Colosseum. The King addressed a joint session of the Italian parliament, saying recent global crises show “peace is never to be taken for granted”.

Following Italian reports on Tuesday that their visit to the Pope may take place, the Jesuit review America reported on Wednesday evening that a motorcade without flags or insignia had left the Vatican’s Porta Perugino that afternoon, understood to be returning the King and Queen to their residence after the meeting.

Discussing Pope Francis’ continued recovery during a garden party at the British ambassador’s residence in Rome on Tuesday, the King said: “I pray for the Pope.”

In a social media post after their visit, Buckingham Palace said the King and Queen were “deeply touched” by the Pope’s good wishes for their anniversary and “honoured to be able to share their best wishes in person”.

Their wedding on 9 April 2005 had itself been postponed by a day so the then-Prince of Wales could attend the funeral of John Paul II.

The meeting was the latest in a series of engagements for Pope Francis since his discharge from hospital on 23 March, despite the two-month convalescence ordered by his doctors. He has received visits from curial officials over the past fortnight, including the Vatican’s secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Monday.

After the Pope’s surprise appearance in St Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers on Sunday, Dr Sergio Alfieri who led his medical care in the Gemelli Hospital said Francis “will give us other surprises” and “does not hide his frailty”, adding: “He decides. He is the Pope.”

Speaking on Italian television, Alfieri said: “He is no longer a sick person. When he was in his hospital his immune system was compromised, he was immunosuppressed, and there were problems. Now his immune system is no longer compromised. He is no longer sick. He is convalescing. He has just done two weeks. We hope he will respect the other six.”

King to meet Pope Francis during state visit to Italy

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