The King and Queen’s planned visit to the Vatican next month has been postponed due to medical advice issued to the Pope, Buckingham Palace said.
Charles and Camilla were due to visit Pope Francis in the Holy See in just under two weeks’ time but the tour was put on hold by mutual agreement after medical advice suggested Francis would benefit from extra time to recuperate.
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.”
The King and Queen’s tour of Italy is understood to still be going ahead, however there are expected to be some changes to the programme.
The news came after Pope Francis was discharged from hospital on Sunday after 38-days of receiving treatment for a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia.
He has returned to the Vatican, but has been prescribed a further two-month period of rest since leaving hospital to fully heal.
The palace had announced last week that the trip to the Vatican in early April would go ahead despite the pontiff’s continued illness.
But now the monarchs will embark on their tour of Italy without the visit to the Vatican, which was set to celebrate the papal jubilee and the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Church of England.
The state visit was announced just over a week before the Pope was admitted to hospital.
The tour from April 7 to 10 was set to include two state visits, to Rome and Ravenna in Italy, and separately the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church, in the Vatican – the smallest independent state in the world.
Charles, supreme governor of the Church of England, last met the Pope in 2019 when he was the Prince of Wales, for the canonisation of Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Charles was due to pass two milestones, becoming the first British monarch to visit the resting place of St Paul since the reformation, and address both houses of Italy’s parliament.
Their state visit to Italy will still continue, but there will be some changes to the programme.