Pope Francis has a private audience at Casa Santa Marta with British King Charles III and Queen Camilla, expressing her best wishes for their wedding anniversary.
By Salvatore cernuzio
On a particularly important day for their family which marks its 20th anniversary of wedding and the four years anniversary of the death of the father of the King, Philippe d’Edinburgh, King Charles and Queen Camilla met Pope Francis in private on Wednesday afternoon.
The meeting took place in Casa Santa Marta of the Vatican, where the Pope has been recovering for more than two weeks after being released from the Gemelli hospital and where he recently resumed various meetings.
In a statement published Wednesday evening, the Holy See Press Bureau said: “Pope Francis met their majesties in private, King Charles and Queen Camilla, this afternoon.
The best wishes of the Pope were a reference to the king’s state, after his hospitalization at the end of March due to the side effects of cancer treatment, which was diagnosed a year ago.
An official meeting with the Pope had been announced by the Buckingham Palace in early March, during the hospitalization of Pope Francis due to bilateral pneumonia.
The initial announcement explained that the Royals would pass the first segment of their trip to Italy to celebrate the jubilee with the pontiff in the Vatican.
A later note, on March 24, announced that King Charles III and Queen Camilla would no longer see the Pope because of needs linked to his convalescence: “Their majesties send to the Pope their best wishes for his convalescence and are looking forward to visiting him to the Holy See, once he has recovered.”
The king and the queen were able to express their best wishes in person during their audience on Wednesday afternoon.
During their three -day visit to Rome, the British monarchs met the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. On Wednesday, the king also became the first British monarch to address the assembled houses of Parliament in Montecitorio.
As we know, King Charles III is not only the sovereign of the United Kingdom (and 14 other Commonwealth kingdoms), but is also the supreme governor of the Church of England.
In 2019, on the eve of the canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the first Briton in more than forty years to be proclaimed a saint, the prince of the country of Wales published an article at the Roman Osservatore, calling the event “a cause of celebration not only in the United States, and not just for the Cathelics, but for all the values that he would inspire.”
The future king was then present for the Vatican canonization ceremony on October 13, 2019, at the end of which he praised Pope Francis.
