Prince Charles visit to Rome
Clarence House has announced that the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will be visiting Rome to meet Pope Francis at the end of March 2017.
Prince Charles has spoken out against the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and has been a strong advocate about the role of faith in society. The meeting with the Pope will take place as part of a wider European tour and marks their first private audience with this Pope in the Vatican reports The Tablet – the international Catholic News Weekly.
The paper reports that a spokeswoman for Clarence House confirmed the meeting but could not give a precise date while a statement said the prince and the duchess will be in Italy and the Holy See from 31 March to 5 April.
When they do meet the Pope and Prince Charles should find points of common interest, particularly on the environment and interfaith dialogue. Prince Charles has long championed interfaith discussion and has a keen interest in Islam while Francis has continually pushed the importance of dialogue between religions with the Vatican recently announcing a joint initiative with Egypt’s Al-Azhar university.
Full story can be found in The Tablet.