<\/p>\n
The Vatican on Thursday published a photograph of Pope Francis meeting King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla the day before during the British monarch’s state visit to Italy.<\/p>\n
Wednesday’s meeting was a surprise, as Buckingham palace had cancelled the planned audience due to the 88-year-old pope’s poor health.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, is recovering from five weeks in hospital with life-threatening pneumonia.<\/p>\n
It was the first meeting between Charles, the head of the Church of England, and the pope since the monarch ascended to the throne in 2022.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The pontiff offered his congratulations to the royal couple, who celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary Wednesday, the palace and the Vatican said.<\/p>\n
During the 20-minute encounter, the king — who is recovering from cancer — and the pope also exchanged well-wishes for each other’s health, the Vatican said.<\/p>\n
“Their majesties were delighted the Pope was well enough to host them — and to have had the opportunity to share their best wishes in person,” a Buckingham Palace statement added.<\/p>\n
Charles, 76, has been suffering from an unnamed cancer for more than a year and less than two weeks ago he was briefly admitted to hospital after experiencing side effects from his treatment.<\/p>\n
He was out of action for a matter of days before resuming his official engagements on April 1.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis, who almost died twice during his treatment for double pneumonia, has been in convalescence since his return to the Vatican on March 23.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite being ordered to rest and recover for two months, the Argentine made a surprise appearance in St Peter’s Square last Sunday at the end of a mass.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the Vatican said that Pope Francis’s voice and mobility were improving, raising hopes that he may take part in upcoming Easter celebrations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He has been using a cannula — a plastic tube tucked into the nostrils — to help him breathe, notably at night, but was not wearing one in the picture released Thursday.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
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Vatican City: The Vatican on Thursday published a photograph of Pope Francis meeting King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla the day before during the British monarch’s state visit to Italy. Wednesday’s meeting was a surprise, as Buckingham palace had cancelled the planned audience due to the 88-year-old pope’s poor health. Pope Francis, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2430,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/2430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}