I'm John Baxter, and Gregory Copley is here to help me understand the politics of the relationship

between the Church of England, headed by King Charles III, and this is the King Charles

Report, headed by King Charles III, and the Pope, Pope Francis, heading the Roman Catholic Church.

This is a marriage that fell apart in the 16th century, and ever since then there have been

very careful approaches to rapprochement. I don't know the status, however.

So Gregory helped me.

Is this significant good news that the king is traveling to Rome for an audience?

He's had an audience before, but not as king, 2017, when he was the heir, but now he's king himself. Is this something that is unusual for the Church

of England and the Roman Catholic Church? It is, and it's a very sensitive issue, because there's

no question of the Anglican Church surrendering its sovereignty to the Catholic Church. And there's a risk,

if you like, for King Charles to visit Pope Francis on this occasion. But because the Pope has been

ill, and there's no question of the Pope coming to London at this particular time.

So Charles goes to visit him and it does actually start to bring about greater ecumenical

cooperation.

The King has been working on this, not just with the Catholic Church, but with Muslim and other

Christian sects and with the Jewish faith over the last few months,

basically to get a more coherent and optimistic approach to the wars in the Middle East,

particularly the current Palestinian or Hamas conflict with Israel.

And that seems to have been very, very positive, but it's toned down

to a large extent a lot of the pro-Palestinian protests and violence that we've seen

throughout Western Europe, and the King is very engaged in ensuring that there is a cooperation in that regard.

It also means that the king is exerting once again his great diplomatic prestige in building

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