King Charles III leaves for a state visit to the Vatican Wednesday, where he will meet Pope Leo XIV and make history as the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with the pontiff since the schism between the churches 500 years ago.

The visit comes at a delicate time for the British king following new revelations about his brother, Prince Andrew, who is mired in a scandal surrounding late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Charles and Queen Camilla will meet Leo for the first time since he succeeded the late pope Francis in May.

On Thursday, Charles and Leo will pray together in the first such public religious moment since Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church after the then pope refused to annul his marriage to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon.

In 1961, th

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