King Charles and Queen Camilla postpone Vatican visit as Pope Francis recovers

The UK's King Charles III and Queen Camilla have postponed a planned state visit to the Vatican in early April following medical advice from the pope's doctors. 

"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," a statement from Buckingham Palace stated. 

The UK's head of state wrote to Francis when the 88-year-old pontiff was struck down with pneumonia in both lungs in February, amid fears he might not survive.

Francis was discharged on Sunday following almost 40 days in Rome's Gemelli hospital.

Since then, he has concelebrated mass within the Santa Marta guesthouse where he lives, as well as undergoing breathing and speech therapy to help his recovery, according to the Vatican.

But he has received no visitors "apart from his closest associates", it said, and no date has been set for his next appearance in public.

Charles, who is the head of the Church of England, had been scheduled to meet his Catholic counterpart on April 8.

But by "mutual agreement" with the Holy See the visit which would have been Charles's first to the Vatican as monarch has now been postponed.

Charles last visited the Holy See as heir to the British throne in 2019.

The Italian part of Charles and Camilla's visit is still due to go ahead in early April with meetings planned with Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella.

Charles is set to become the first British monarch to address a sitting of the Italian parliament, according to Buckingham Palace.

After revealing in February 2024 that he was being treated for cancer, the 76-year-old sovereign has since October resumed his trips abroad.

The Church of England split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century, after Pope Clement VII refused King Henry VIII's request to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

In response Henry launched the English Reformation, making himself supreme leader of the country's Church and steering it towards Protestantism.

AFP