Pope welcomes Queen Elizabeth to Vatican

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were welcomed to the Vatican today by Pope Francis.

The royal couple are in Italy for a one day visit following a private invitation from Italian president Giorgio Napolitano.

They visited the Quirinal Palace in Rome, the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, where they attended a private lunch hosted by Mr Napolitano.

The couple had a private audience afterwards with Pope Francis in the Pope’s Study, part of a suite of rooms within the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall, close to the Casa Santa Marta, the guest house in the Vatican where the Pope has chosen to live.

It was the first time the queen, who is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has met Pope Francis who was installed just over a year ago as leader of the world's Roman Catholics. She met Pope John Paul II in the Vatican in 2000.

The queen was not wearing black or a mantilla - a lace veil - for the meeting in keeping with the informal nature of the visit, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said.

The visit to Italy is the first foreign trip in more than two years by the queen and comes before her 88th birthday on April 21st.

The monarch marked her diamond jubilee in 2012 by travelling throughout the UK, leaving other royal family members to undertake overseas visits on her behalf.

The queen was scheduled to visit Italy last year but the trip had to be postponed because she was unwell.

The meeting between the queen and the pope comes in the centenary year of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the British Government in 1914 after they were broken off in the 16th century.

The Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is expected to be present to greet the queen at the Vatican on her arrival, along with his private secretary, Monsignor Robert Murphy.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the retired Archbishop of Westminster, and former leader of Catholics in England and Wales, will also be present in the group greeting the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on her arrival at the Vatican.

The cardinal, an old friend of the pope, also has a close relationship with the royal family. He has spoken of how the pope asked him to convey his warmest greetings to the queen just two days after his election last year.

It is believed that the 77-year-old Argentine-born pope - who once described himself as from the “ends of the earth” - has never visited Britain.

Nigel Baker, British ambassador to the Holy See, said: “The visit of her Majesty the Queen to the Vatican and the audience with Pope Francis is a reaffirmation of the strength of the bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the Holy See in a year in which we celebrate the centenary of the restablishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See.”

Asked to comment on the issue of the Falkland Islands, Mr Baker said: “The Vatican has been clear with us including in the last week and at a very senior level that their long standing position of neutrality on the issue remains in force.”

Reuters