Vatican City — King Charles III met Thursday with Pope Leo XIV during a state visit to the Vatican, and the British monarch made history as the first head of the Church of England to pray publicly with a pontiff.

The 76-year-old king, who, by virtue of his role as the monarch also holds the title of supreme governor of the mother church of Anglicanism, flew to Rome Wednesday evening with his wife, Queen Camilla, for what Buckingham Palace described as a "historic" trip.

The royals were greeted at the Apostolic Palace on Thursday morning by a ceremonial guard of honor by the Swiss Guard, the pope's colorful private bodyguards, before a private meeting with Chicago native Leo in the papal library.

It was Charles's first meeting with Pope Leo, who took over as head of the world's 1.4 bil

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