The King and the Pope..

[CurlewKate]

I never feel remotely sorry for members of the Royal Family but of all the times for the King to have had this rapprochement with the Pope, this must have been the worst. It’s absolutely fascinating and significant historically, but presumably for most people it’s not significant enough to be any sort of distraction from the general shit show. And the News providers have too much other royal stuff on at the moment to focus on it.

Is nobody else interested in this from a historical point of view?

It certainly struck me as odd that two Christians praying together was news at all.

Well Henry VIII will be turning in his grave.

He loved the Pope when he was younger, even wrote a treatise

For the heads of these particular branches of Christianity to be praying together is a truly historic event.

I do appreciate that. I suppose I meant it should be odd that it's news.
It's a shame that this is considered newsworthy, because it shouldn't be. It's only considered interesting due to the long history of bad behaviour by some members of some branches of Christianity.

I think it’s a huge historical moment. I’m currently abroad and have been disappointed not to have seen much coverage.

Historical and yet still the same in that the room is full of men.

Always so many men and so very few women.

“Of all the times … this must have been the worst”. Why?

I thought it would be more private, the clips were weird, poorly done. Very strange for two institutions well known for pomp.
The queens headpiece was almost demonic in appearance initially looking like multiple horns.
The part that I assume was “the prayer” was very clunky,

Well this bigoted eejit thinks the King should abdicate because he prayed with the Pope 😂😂

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgql9k59v7do

I wonder if the pope had any advice for Charles about how he should deal with Andrew.

I did have the thought that King Charles announcing that he is going to reverse the doings of Henry VIII and return himself and the country to Rome might provide a distraction from Andrew. Possibly.

Seriously, Ian Paisley's son is as bad as him even though some of the "Pope is antiChrist" horrible rhetoric is dialled back.

Given how deep the Reformation tore into the fabric of Britain, seeing this as a "in other news" story is mildly amusing.

Or rather would be until you remember the countless poor fold who were punished (sometimes most severely) for being on the wrong side of history.

The Reformation can be seen in the shape of the British civil war and the Brexit vote.

You mean given how good the Catholic church has been at moving on from paedophilia ?

I just don’t think many people are interested in the king meeting the pope.

It's hardly as though the Catholic Church itself has never had to deal with any sex scandals, is it?

Maybe he could become a priest.

Hmm, not sure what I thought really. Cottrell led from the CofE didn’t he with the King merely being present.

It feels like something shoehorned in before the new Archbishop of Canterbury takes up the reins in January 2026 to me, someone who won’t be recognised by the Catholic Church.

I’d have had given far more weight to it is it was just King to Pope, without the circus.

I’m all for it in principle, but I just feel like what we’ve seen and the press coverage around it isn’t what’s important somehow.

As an agnostic, I'm interested to understand why some people are so violently against this. I understand that there are fundamental theological differences between the two religions, but it doesn't seem as though anyone is being asked to set aside the differences, Charles and the Pope are praying to the same God.

There are over a billion of members of the Catholic Church, but not quite as many in the Protestant Anglican Communion. I'm sure they are all fine with it, but don't see it as in any way "historic". Just two blokes saying a prayer together. One in a white dress and the other in a Savile Row suit. One "celibate" and one definitely NOT!

And in other news......

Very much agree, any problem with 2 Christians praying together is just nonsense. It isn't like Communion where there would be arguments about what each actually believes is happening, it was prayer to the same version of God. The Reformation was a very long time ago and it would be nice to think that we've moved on to a better place, even with theological differences that exist and that some of the undoubted pain resulting from that time is healed. Charles II became a Roman Catholic on his deathbed, secretly and he had always been sympathetic to religious tolerance but knew it was a wound he couldn't reopen publically without great strife.

However, some people will find something in the Bible to selectively use to justify their rage, that or "tradition" or plain old bigotry.

TBF the new Archbishop of Canterbury is a woman.

I think we’ll be waiting a while to see a female Pope, though.

Yes as pp said they are praying to the same God so no need for anyone to get upset about it. By the way do the Church of England say the Hail Mary? As I was brought up Catholic that was always a very important prayer.

I think people like the DUP getting worked up about it is because they thrive on division. Their voter base is almost solely based on being anti-Catholic so they have to keep that fired up.