I'm John Batson with my colleague Gregory Copley.

We stopped the Vatican, a surprise visitor.

That would be the King of England, of Great Britain, excuse me,

and his wife, the Queen, Camilla, visiting a pope who had heretofore been too ill to receive them, and yet he rallied

to meet the king. This following the king's announcement that he was addressing the twin

bodies of Parliament, of Congress, of the Assembly in Italy, in Rome, and then they went on

to Scotland, but let's stay in Italy for just a moment.

The King's message to Italy, Gregory,

was it of unifying Europe?

How did he present himself?

No, it wasn't about unifying Europe.

It was about, if you like, restoring dignity to the nation state.

And he gave a great boost, if you like, to the dignity of the Italian state with his visit

and all of the ceremony which the Italians were able to roll out and which the British themselves

rolled out in return for the Italians, for the dignity, if you like,

of the meeting with the Pope. That actually was a big boost to the Catholic Church as well as to

King Charles' own position as defender of the faith in the United Kingdom. The fact that

the king was going to visit the Pope initially was seen as King Charles,

perhaps coutowing to the Catholic Church, which wasn't really what he was doing.

But when the visit with the Pope was not going to be on for health reasons of the Pope,

that wasn't going to be a problem.

But the Pope himself rallied because he wanted to meet the king again.

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