LONDON (AP) — King Charles III is scheduled to have an audience with Pope Francis during a state visit next month to the Vatican, suggesting the Holy See is optimistic the pontiff will be back at work by then, barring any setbacks in his recovery from double pneumonia.
The tentative audience was among details of the British monarch’s visit to the Vatican and Italy released on Tuesday by Buckingham Palace. State visits are always planned in close consultation with the Vatican’s secretariat of state.
The palace separately confirmed that Charles wrote privately to the pope when he was taken ill. Francis, 88, has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. With gradual improvements, the Vatican said Monday it had suspended morning updates and is issuing less frequent medical bulletins. The next one is not expected before Wednesday.
The visit to the Vatican is symbolic of efforts to build closer ties between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, which split from Rome in the 16th century during the reign of King Henry VIII. Charles, who is head of the Church of England, made building bridges between people of all faiths a priority since he ascended the throne 2 1/2 years ago.
Charles’ three-day trip begins April 7 and it will also include events in Italy and its capital, Rome, which surrounds Vatican City.
In Rome, Charles will highlight the close links between Britain and Italy, two NATO allies, at a time when European nations are working to bolster support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. The visit will include a joint flypast over Rome by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, or Tricolor Arrows, and their Royal Air Force counterparts, the Red Arrows.
The king and queen will attend a reception in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, to mark the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from the Nazis by Allied forces on April 10, 1945. The royals will also celebrate the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region and meet with local farmers devastated by floods that recently hit the area.
“The visit to Italy will underscore the depth and breadth of the bilateral relationship,’’ the palace said in a statement.
One of the central events of Charles’ trip to the Vatican will be a historic first in which the king, in his capacity as supreme governor of the Church of England, will visit the Papal Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, where reconciliation and ecumenical relations between Christian faiths are celebrated. Choirs from the King’s Chapel Royal, St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and the Sistine Chapel will perform.
English kings had a particular link to the basilica before the split from Rome during the Protestant Reformation. The church was built over a white marble sarcophagus that for some 2,000 years has been believed to be the tomb of St. Paul.
The visit is taking place during the Papal Jubilee, a year of forgiveness and reconciliation that is celebrated by the Catholic Church every 25 years.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/royalty
FILE - Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
FILE - Britain's King Charles III waves as he arrives for a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
TOKYO (AP) — Chicago Cubs fans take pride in being underdogs, a role that ended briefly when they won the World Series in 2016 to end a 107-year drought between championships.
They were right at home in Tokyo facing the Los Angeles Dodgers and megastar Shohei Ohtani in a two-game series to open the Major League Baseball regular season. Chicago dropped the first game 4-1, then allowed a homer by Ohtani in a 6-3 defeat in the second game.
Dodgers fans easily outnumbered Cubs fans 10 to 1 at the Tokyo Dome. On the sheer interest level, Ohtani was probably 60-70% of the draw in the sellouts, with the Cubs and Dodgers splitting the rest.
“That’s what’s great about the Cubs, we're always the come-from-behind team,” said Zach Valavanis, a Cubs fan entering a theme bar in the Tokyo Dome complex, filled with Cubs logos and memorabilia — and dozens of other Chicago fans.
“I feel like that’s been the case forever,” Valavanis added, citing the come-from-behind effort to win the 2016 World Series.
Cubs batting practice was well attended. But the Dodgers batting practice was a spectacle with hundreds of photographers, reporters and video journalists staking out Ohtani and his two Japanese teammates — pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
The Cubs have two Japanese players — pitchers Shota Imanaga and designated hitter Seiya Suzuki — who didn't go unnoticed. But they're not Dodgers.
“What did they (the Dodgers) spend — three, four, five billion dollars,” said Zach's brother Alex Valavanis, both wearing white Cubs jerseys. “I don’t think they can keep up that pace, but we’ll see.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell kept it simple. He said being a very high-profile afterthought comes with the territory.
“We’re playing the world champions, you expect that from that perspective,” he said. “We’re playing against the most famous player in the world. So you expect it from that perspective as well.”
“When you’re the world champs, you get to enjoy the spoils of that — and that’s fair to me,” he added.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts kept his explanation even simpler.
“I think in totality, there’s still a few ballclubs that share that same lore of history," he said. “But baseball, a lot of it is cyclical, and so our hope is we can continue to ride this high tide as the Dodgers.
“I just think it’s more skewed because of Shohei. And nothing against the other Japanese players,” Roberts added. "But Shohei is just such a beast of this whole equation.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
A Chicago Cubs fan makes her way to her seat before an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Fans of the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers walk around the Tokyo Dome ahead of an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Fans of the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers walk around the Tokyo Dome ahed of an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Chicago Cubs' fans walk around the Tokyo Dome ahed of an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Fans hold up a Japanese national flag during team intorductions before an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Fans of the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers walk around the Tokyo Dome ahed of an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
Fans of the Chicago Cubs take selfie at the Tokyo Dome ahead of an MLB Tokyo Series baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
