King Charles and Queen Camilla’s meeting with Pope Francis at Vatican ‘postponed by mutual agreement’ on ‘medical advice’

King Charles and Queen Camilla will no longer meet with Pope Francis or visit the Vatican next month due to the Pontiff’s need to rest and recuperate after a lengthy hospital stay.

Buckingham Palace says the planned audience with the 88-year-old was “postponed by mutual agreement” based on “medical advice”.

The King and Queen will still travel to Italy as part of a state visit in April, which will take place in Rome and Ravenna.

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Just last week, the palace had been expecting the King and Queen to meet with Pope Francis at the Holy See.

But overnight, it confirmed the private audience would no longer take place as planned.

In a statement the palace said: “The King and Queen’s state visit to the Holy See has been postponed by mutual agreement, as medical advice has now suggested that Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest and recuperation.

“Their Majesties send the Pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in the Holy See, once he has recovered.”

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The King is still receiving regular treatment for cancer following his diagnosis in February last year.

The decision to postpone the meeting with King Charles comes after doctors revealed that they considered letting the Pope die during his five weeks in hospital while he was suffering from double pneumonia.

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The meeting between the monarch and the Pope was widely viewed as a show of friendship between the Anglican and Catholic Churches.

King Charles’ visit to the Vatican was also set to be a “historic first”, with the 76-year-old slated to be the first monarch and Supreme Governor of the Church of England to visit the Papal Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls since the Reformation, which dates back to the 1500s.

The visit to the Vatican was viewed as symbolic of efforts to build closer ties between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, which split from Rome in the 16th century during the reign of King Henry VIII.

King Charles has made building bridges between people of all faiths a priority since he ascended the throne in September 2022 and is something he also championed as Prince of Wales.

He and Camilla previously met Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2017.

Pope Francis returned to the Vatican on Monday after being treated at Gemelli hospital in Rome.

He was admitted on February 14 for a bout of bronchitis that developed into double pneumonia, an especially serious condition for him, as he had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.

The Pontiff will remain in relative isolation at Casa Santa Marta for the next two months.

King Charles and Queen Camilla will travel to Italy on April 7 for three days, their visit taking place during the Papal Jubilee, a year of forgiveness and reconciliation that is celebrated by the Catholic Church every 25 years.

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In Rome, the King will highlight the close links between Britain and Italy, two NATO allies, at a time when European nations are working to bolster support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.

The visit will include a joint flypast over Rome by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, or Tricolor Arrows, and their Royal Air Force counterparts, the Red Arrows.

King Charles and Queen Camilla will also attend a reception in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, to mark the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from the Nazis by Allied forces on April 10, 1945.

The royals will also celebrate the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region and meet with local farmers devastated by floods that recently hit the area.

The couple will also mark their 20th wedding anniversary during the visit, on April 9, when they will attend a state banquet.

The same day, King Charles is also set to become the first British monarch to address a joint session of Italian parliament.

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