Ending a Divide? Charles III meets Leo XIV

I think the secular media has gone over the top. His Majesty is bound by his Coronation Oath to "maintain ... the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?"

From One Peter Five

By Michael Haynes

A “meeting of equals,” an “end” to a 500-year “divide,” and a breakthrough in ecumenical relations – such were the reactions of the world’s press to the historic state visit by the British Monarch to the Holy See yesterday.

Indeed it was without doubt a spectacle both historic and notable. Few such visits by heads of state would ever have compared to the pomp and dignity which was expected, and delivered, by that of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

The courtyard of San Damaso in the Apostolic Palace was adorned with the fine tapestries of the papal and the royal flags, and the British national anthem was blasted out in fanfare as the monarch stepped out of his personal car (not the normal diplomatic courtesy limousine) onto Vatican soil. This was no ordinary occasion.

Such a sense of poignancy continued through the private audience Leo gave to the royal party, but in truth it was elsewhere that the true import of the day was found: the ecumenical prayer in the Sistine Chapel.

Beneath Michelangelo’s famous handiwork Anglican and Catholic met in an event which – when placed against the historical reality of Catholic persecution at the hands of the Church of England – is arguably hard to believe.

The joint choir was formed of members of the Sistine Chapel choir with those of the King’s own chapel choirs who journeys with him from England.

In front of the altar were four identical chairs: two for Charles and Camilla, one for Leo XIV, and one for the Anglican Archbishop of York (currently the highest ranking cleric in Protestant England).

The pews were filled with the respective delegations: cardinals and officials from the Holy See, along with Anglican clerics and politicians accompanying the King. A meeting of monarchs and retinues, Catholic and Protestant, but what most – rightly – focused on was the religious aspect.

Charles is supreme governor of the Church of England, a position held since the Protestant Revolt and break with Rome enacted by King Henry VIII in 1534. Henry VIII’s rejection of Rome and the Pope instigated the bloody Catholic persecution which saw the state attempt to destroy any semblance of the old religion in England’s once green and pleasant land.

As supreme governor of the Church of England he thus met with the Vicar of Christ whose faithful Charles’ predecessors in the throne persecuted mercilessly.

It was in this religious capacity that the English press gushed about the “meeting of equals” and the healing of a “rift.”

Leo XIV bestowed on Charles the title “Royal Confrater” of the Abbey of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, giving him and all future British monarchs a permanent throne in the basilica. This was described by Buckingham Palace as a mark of hospitality, and a “recognition of spiritual fellowship.”

In return the Anglicans made the Pope a “Papal Brother” of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.

The Palace hailed the day as a “joining of hands between the Catholic Church and Church of England in a celebration of ecumenism.”

“These reciprocal gifts of ‘brotherhood,’ are a recognition of spiritual communion and are deeply symbolic of the journey that the Church of England (of which His Majesty is Supreme Governor) and the Roman Catholic Church have traveled over the last 500 years,” added Buckingham Palace.

But what are traditional Catholics to make of Charles’ visit? Was it truly the healing of the divide, or simply another stunt in the Vatican’s smooth ecumenical operation?

Ecumenical Unity?

Firstly it must be said straight away that this was no meeting of “equals.” Christ’s Church is not one among many, but the only Church founded by Her Divine Spouse, and His vicar on earth is not equatable with the lay leader of a schismatic church founded, essentially, on the desire for divorce.

Furthermore, as visually spectacular as it was for viewers to see Pope and King side by side in the glory of the Sistine Chapel, Thursday’s ecumenical prayer is something that would have been incomprehensible a few decades ago.

In his 1928 encyclical Mortalium animos Pope Pius XI wrote explaining why Catholics were prohibited from participating in non-Catholic “assemblies”:

The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it.

Then in his 1949 document, “On the Ecumenical Movement,” Pius XII warned about dangers in the ecumenical movement, noting that “care must be taken lest…the purity of Catholic doctrine be impaired, or its genuine and certain meaning be obscured.”

The reasoning behind these decrees has long since been waived aside in the tumultuous decades following the Second Vatican Council, but the wisdom of Pius XII remains evergreen, as evidenced by the reactions of much of the media yesterday. By taking the stage, or altar, in such a manner together, Charles and Leo did indeed appear somewhat as religious equals, and the message was once again sent that the Church is a partner of other churches.

“The King and the Pope have joined together in prayer, marking the public end to a 500-year-old divide and ushering the Christian faith into a new era,” the U.K.’s Telegraph wrote.

Such perhaps was what prompted Raymond Arroyo to comment:

Watching this prayer service from the Vatican, in the shadow of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, it is hard to ignore that the split between these communions began with a British monarch who insisted he had a right to divorce and remarry.

Prominent pro-life advocate Dr. Calum Miller also critiqued the ceremony:

It’s not Christian unity. The Archbishop of York is a heretic. Catholic leaders keep making this mistake which turns off all the conservative Anglicans tempted to become Catholic.

Indeed, the Catholic Church does not recognize Anglican orders, and the recent rise of female ordinands in the Church of England – something the Catholic Church infallibly condemns – has further muddied the waters of attempts to overcome doctrinal juxtapositions.  

In fact, Anglican converts to Catholicism did not find the day to be the resounding success which many in the media did. Some priests in the Ordinariate also warned of negative impacts of the ceremony. “Am I alone in thinking serious work of Christian unity (sorting out doctrinal difference & heresy) ought to come before the joint services & nice photo opportunities?,” Father Ed Tomlinson asked. “The ordinariate did that and actually united the reformation divide. All else – I fear-  gives confusing signals…”

Similarly wrote Father Mark Elliot Smith, also of the English Ordinariate: “It’s also true to say that the Catholic Church & Anglicanism have never looked so much alike while never being so far apart.”

Dr. Gavin Ashenden – Catholic convert and former chaplain to the Queen, told me that it was visually “profoundly moving to see the king and queen sitting alongside the Pope in the Sistine Chapel accompanied by the choir from Saint James’s Palace in London dressed like mini beef eaters singing the exquisite music of Thomas Tallis, who was of course a Catholic.”

“But,” he added, “while the visual impact was profound, the content of the visit itself was light and in substantial. It represented nothing more than generous diplomacy from the Vatican.”

What effect might it have?

Perhaps since King Charles has been criticised for failing to understand the centrality of the Anglican faith that he was born to be supreme governor of, it might have some personal impact to help him recalibrate the significance of the faith itself and the tragedy of the breach with the mother Church.

Liturgy at Service of Ecology

It was further lamentable that the Sistine Chapel – where the sacred rites take place for the election of a new Vicar of Christ – was made the prop and setting for something given to the focus of climate change.

As noted by the Holy See and Buckingham Palace, the ecumenical prayer was “focused on the theme of ‘Care for Creation’, reflecting Pope Leo’s and His Majesty’s commitment to the protection of Nature and concern for the environment.” It was not, by the official account, prayer for the sake of prayer but prayer for the sake of the current dominating ideology of climate concern.

Indeed, directly following the service, Leo and Charles met with leaders and activists from the environmental sector. “This engagement emphasizes The King and Pope Leo’s common leadership on environmental matters and commitment to sustainability and protecting biodiversity,” the press were told.

This, it seems, was a missed opportunity.

However, summarizing the King’s discussion with Cardinal Pietro Parolin the Vatican said that “recalling the history of the Church in the United Kingdom, there was a shared reflection on the need to continue promoting ecumenical dialogue.” What form such dialogue takes remains to be seen.

A Sign of Hope?

With such arguments critiquing the ecumenical ceremony, what is there to be said in defence of the day’s affairs? While it betokened no immediate healing of the schism invoked by the Church of England, some hailed it at least as a positive step in that direction.

Vaticanist Edward Pentin recounted on EWTN that Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth suggested “these gestures give substance to the hope that the British monarch and the Church of England may one day be restored to unity in the Catholic Church.”

Prominent Catholic former MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg also welcomed it as a “wonderful symbolic gesture of Christian unity” in that same journey towards unity: importantly unity in the Catholic Church, not just unity itself.

Dr. Joseph Shaw – president of Una Voce International and an Oxford academic – echoed Rees-Mogg in his tone of optimism. “English Catholics,” he told me, “can take great pleasure in King Charles giving the Pope Leo tokens of what he called ‘esteem and appreciation’, and in the Holy Father reciprocating in a such gracious manner.”

This is the language of diplomacy, but there is no reason to think it is insincere on either side. King Charles is a deeply interested in religion, and acknowledges the ancient connection between his office and the Catholic Church. Until the Reformation, the Kings of England were honorary Canons of St Paul Outside the Walls; this connection has been revived by making King Charles a ‘Royal Confrater’ of the Basilica.

Dr. Shaw did not shy away from the differences between Canterbury and Rome, but nevertheless expressed his own hope that Thursday’s visit could serve as an impetus for the former to reconcile to the latter: “There remains a great gulf of belief between King Charles the Pope, but bonds of mutual respect can prepare the way for deeper understanding a reconciliation.”

Indeed, the state visit of Charles III to the Holy See was arguably in line with all that should be expected: pomp, ceremony, diplomacy and ecumenism to the current recommended amounts were all on display. In a world dominated by visual information, the optics were striking but the substance was lacking.

Catholics and Protestants might well join ever more frequently in such ecumenical endeavours, but until the Church of England recognizes the error of its ways there will be no unity in Christ but simply unity in something else.

Catholics eager to express devotion to the Catholic institution of a monarchy should rightly rejoice at all the very proper beauty of yesterday’s state reception, but we should further hope and pray that it is not the end goal, but simply one key step on the path to Anglican reconciliation with the Catholic Church.