The King and Queen will undertake a State Visit to the Holy See next month, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Charles, 76, and Camilla, 78, will travel to Vatican City in late October to meet Pope Leo XIV to celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year.

This Catholic Church celebration takes place every 25 years, with this year’s theme being ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. 

It has been chosen to represent ‘a year of hope for a world suffering the impacts of war, the ongoing effects of COVID-19 pandemic and a climate crisis,’ according to the Catholic Church website. 

The visit will also celebrate the ecumenical work by the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the Jubilee year’s theme of walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. 

The King and Queen were set to travel to the Vatican City for a State Visit in April, but the event was postponed due to Pope Francis‘s ill health. Leo XIV became the Pope after Pope Francis died aged 88 on 21 April this year.

Instead, the pair met with Pope Francis privately on their 20th wedding anniversary on April 9, just weeks before he passed away.

Charles and the Pope are understood to have wished each other well following their personal health battles in recent months.

Pope Francis, who died aged 88, suffered several respiratory crises before having a stroke followed by heart failure. 

It is understood that King Charles personally wrote to Pope Francis when he was first taken ill; however, he did not attend the funeral, sending Prince William in his place instead. 

This follows a royal precedent – when Pope John Paul II died, Charles who was then the Prince of Wales, represented the Queen at the funeral.

And in 2013, for Pope Francis’ inauguration, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester attended, and in 2005 for Pope Benedict XVI’s inauguration, it was Prince Philip who represented the Queen.

Monarchs don’t typically attend funerals of heads of state, and it normally falls on the heir to the throne to represent the Royal Family at these events. 

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, born in Chicago, was elected as the new head of the Catholic Church on the second day of the conclave.

Earlier this month, the Pope paid a personal tribute to the Duchess of Kent, praising her ‘legacy of Christian goodness’ in a message delivered during her funeral.

The pontiff highlighted her ‘dedication to official duties’ as the King, Prince and Princess of Wales and other senior royals gathered with her immediate family and friends for her requiem mass, a Catholic funeral.

Missing was the Queen, who pulled out of attending as she recovered from acute sinusitis.

The requiem mass was the first Catholic funeral to be held for a member of the royal family in modern British history.

The pontiff’s message was read by Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, the apostolic nuncio or diplomatic representative in the UK of the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church.

He said: ‘I was saddened to learn of the death of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and I send heartfelt condolences, together with the assurance of my prayerful closeness, to Your Majesty, the members of the royal family, and especially to her husband, the Duke of Kent, and their children and grandchildren at this time of sorrow.

‘Entrusting her noble soul to the mercy of our Heavenly Father, I readily associate myself with all those offering thanksgiving to Almighty God for the duchess’s legacy of Christian goodness, seen in her many years of dedication to official duties, patronage of charities, and devoted care for vulnerable people in society.

‘To all who mourn her loss, in the sure hope of the resurrection, I willingly impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of consolation and peace in the Risen Lord.’

Moments before the requiem mass began the duchess’s immediate family arrived, led by her daughter Lady Helen Taylor, walking arm in arm along the nave with her father the Duke of Kent.

Behind them were her siblings, Lord Nicholas Windsor and George, Earl of St Andrews, and the duchess’s many grandchildren.

Katharine, the wife of the late Queen’s cousin the Duke of Kent, died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, on the evening of September 4, aged 92.

A devout follower of the Roman Catholic faith, the duchess became the first member of the royal family to convert to Catholicism for more than 300 years, doing so in 1994, and it was her wish to have her funeral at Westminster Cathedral.

The duchess was known for consoling losing Wimbledon finalists, notably a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993, and presented trophies at the championships for many years.

She preferred to be known as Mrs Kent and dropped her HRH style, retreating from royal life to spend more than a decade secretly teaching music in a state primary school in Hull.

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