King Charles III and Queen Camilla have visited the Vatican to pray with Pope Leo XIV. This historic meeting aims to strengthen ties between the Church of England and the Catholic Church. The event on Thursday marked the first time since the Reformation that the heads of these two churches have prayed together. The visit comes amid renewed scrutiny of the British royal family over Prince Andrew's ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Charles' and Camilla's visit had been planned for earlier in the year but was rescheduled after Pope Francis's illness and death. The meeting included discussions on ecological sustainability, a priority for both Charles and the Vatican.
The Vatican is expected to soon announce that it will return a few dozen artifacts sought by Indigenous communities in Canada. It's part of its reckoning with the Catholic Church's troubled role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas. The items, including an Inuit kayak, are part of the Vatican Museum's ethnographic collection, known as the Anima Mundi museum. The collection has been a source of controversy for the Vatican amid the broader museum debate over the restitution of cultural artifacts taken from Indigenous peoples during colonial periods. Officials say negotiations are proceeding positively and that an announcement could come from the Vatican in a few weeks.