King Charles III and Queen Camilla of England will make their first official visit to the Vatican in April.

According to a statement from Buckingham Palace, “The King and Queen will undertake State Visits to the Holy See and the Republic of Italy in early April 2025.”

As part of their official state visit, Charles and Camilla will join Pope Francis “in celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year,” the statement said, noting that the two will have engagements in Rome and Ravenna as part of their trip, “celebrating the strong bilateral relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom.”

Though he has visited the Vatican in the past as Prince of Wales, this will be the first official visit to the Vatican of Charles as king.

Charles was crowned in May 2023, following his mother’s death after a 70-year reign.

The coronation ceremony was hailed as a major step forward in terms of Catholic-Anglican relations for the British monarchy, as it marked the first time in 400 years a Catholic bishop participated in a coronation.

The ceremony was also noted for its interreligious novelty and forward-looking openness. Religious leaders from various communities including Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh traditions were also in attendance.

The presence of other Christian leaders and leaders of other faith communities was broadly hailed as part of the king’s commitment to maintaining the role of religion in British society, the composition of which has changed drastically since his mother took the throne in the 1950s.

Seventy years ago, more than 80 percent of England was Christian. In the intervening decades, the religious landscape of the country has changed significantly. According to Fortune Magazine, fewer than half the people in England are Christian, with the latest census figures saying 37 percent state they have no religion, while 6.5 percent declare themselves Muslim, and 1.7 percent Hindu.

London is where this change is felt most acutely, with more than a quarter of citizens adhering to a non-Christian faith.

While still Prince of Wales, Charles famously declared in an interview in the 1990s that he wanted to be referred to as “defender of faith,” marking a small but significant diversion from the British monarch’s historic title as, “defender of the faith,” meaning Christianity and, specifically, the Church of England.

His emphasis on religious diversity has been hailed as especially timely in an increasingly diverse nation where clashes between different faith communities such as Hindus and Muslims are frequent, where antisemitism remains a political issue, and where historic differences between Catholics and Protestants can still be felt in Northern Ireland.

In terms of Catholic-Anglican relations, King Charles’s coronation was seen as a significant symbolic step forward.

Historical strains between Catholics and Anglicans date back to 1534, when Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church and declared himself head of the Church of England. However, observers have said that rift and the tensions that ensued eventually faded during Queen Elizabeth II’s time on the throne, due to both a changing religious demography and efforts at the state level.

Her 70-year reign spanned seven different pontificates, beginning with Pope Pius XII. She met with Pope Francis in 2014. The last pope to meet her in the United Kingdom was Benedict XVI during his visit in 2010.

When Charles and Camilla were formally crowned in 2023, observers and royal pundits alike took special note of the religious dimension of the ceremony, with the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Chris Trott, at the time saying his government was “keen to see ecumenical relations flourish.”

“To see in this service,” Trott said in a 2023 interview with Crux, “the full range and extent of ecumenical participation and then beyond, with the inclusion of Sikh, and Muslim, and Hindu, and Jewish members of the House of Lords in the formal ceremony, I thought was very powerful.”

“When Christian communities can come together, it is easier for them to then reach out to other faiths,” he said.

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Charles visited the Holy See on five separate occasions as Prince of Wales, the first of which was in April 1985, followed by an April 2005 visit for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

He visited again in April 2009 and in April 2017, and finally again in October 2019 for the Canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a famed Anglican convert to Catholicism known for his academic and philosophical contributions to Christianity.

Charles in his visits has met with three popes, including John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. He also met with John Paul II in Canterbury during the first-ever visit of a pope on British soil.

In addition to the time he has spent in the Vatican, Charles has also visited Italy 17 times, with his first visit taking place in 1984, and most recently visiting in October 2021 for the G20 summit in Rome. Camilla has joined him on two occasions, for visits in 2009 and 2017.

Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’s mother, also visited Italy and the Vatican during a jubilee year, coming in October 2000 for the Great Jubilee held that year.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on Twitter: @eliseannallen