The state visit made by King Charles to the Vatican on 22nd & 23rd October causes us great concern.

We are alarmed that during his visit the King attended a special service in the Sistine Chapel, and especially that His Majesty prayed publicly with Pope Leo. This has not happened between a British monarch and the Pope since the Reformation, when ties with Rome were mercifully broken. The service was described on the official website of the Royal Family as “marking the joining of hands between the Catholic Church and Church of England in a celebration of ecumenism”. While the late Queen Elizabeth made two state visits to the Vatican, neither of these involved participating publicly in an act of worship.

As our monarch, Charles has taken the religious oaths required of him by law. At his accession, Charles promised and swore, “I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the Settlement of the true Protestant Religion as established by the Laws made in Scotland.”

At his coronation, Charles was asked: “Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England?” In reply, Charles promised to do this. He also professed, testified and declared, “I am a faithful Protestant.”

The Protestant Reformed Religion established by law in Scotland is detailed in the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Confession declares: “There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense, be head thereof; but is that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God.”

Charles bears the formal title of ‘Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governor of the Church of England’. The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England declare: “The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England.” We would remind the King of Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, and his words when he was about to be burned at the stake in Oxford during the reign of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary. “And as for the pope, I refuse him as Christ’s enemy, and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine.”

Among the false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church rejected by our Reformers was the mass. The Thirty-Nine Articles describe masses as “blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits”. The Westminster Confession declares the mass to be “most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice”. As Protestants we reject the mass entirely. It is a blatant denial of the Gospel truth that Christ finished the work of our redemption on the cross. It denies that His once-for-all sacrifice is sufficient to save sinners, and that salvation is therefore by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

We believe that by praying with the Pope during his state visit King Charles has violated his oaths, and betrayed God, our nation, the Reformation and the Gospel. We call on His Majesty to repent of his sin and to return wholeheartedly to his Protestant commitments.

(Statement from the Public Questions, Religion and Morals Committee 29th October 2025)