King Charles III should abdicate and relinquish his role as head of the Church of England after praying with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, a prominent minister from Northern Ireland said.
The Rev. Kyle Paisley, son of the late firebrand preacher and politician Ian Paisley, said the monarch had acted contrary to his coronation oath to uphold the Protestant faith, the BBC reported.
In remarks to BBC Radio Ulster and in letters to Northern Irish newspapers, Paisley declared that Charles "should let someone else take his place, who is a true Protestant and who will take their vows seriously."
Charles became the first reigning English monarch since Henry VIII to pray publicly with a Pope, during an ecumenical service Thursday in the Sistine Chapel, according to the Catholic News Agency.
The king, seated beside the Pope, joined Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell in prayers that focused on creation and unity.
The service included the Sistine Chapel Choir alongside choirs from Windsor Castle and St. James's Palace — a symbolic show of harmony between the two churches divided since the Reformation.
While the event was hailed in Rome as a landmark step toward Christian unity, it drew sharp criticism from Protestant leaders in Northern Ireland.
The Orange Order, an influential Protestant fraternal group, called the moment "a sad day for Protestantism," expressing "great sadness" and "raising its objections in the strongest possible terms."
Paisley accused the king of betraying his Protestant vows, citing the historic anniversary of William Tyndale's English New Testament, which he said still "has the papacy licking its wounds."
"Our king has denied the Christian Gospel, flown in the face of Holy Scripture, given the lie to his oath, and shown that he is not what he says he is — a true Protestant," Paisley said.
He condemned joint worship with Catholics as "blatant compromise," adding that Protestantism "takes the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice," while "Romanism" elevates church tradition above Scripture.
Wallace Thompson of the Evangelical Protestant Society agreed with Paisley's theological objections, though he stopped short of calling for abdication.
"The two churches are so far apart that you shouldn't feel you can engage in joint prayer — conversation, yes," he told the BBC.
"The king gives certain values at his coronation to maintain the Protestant reformed religion ... He is sending out a signal now that deep down, he doesn't want to do that."
Thursday's meeting marked a new phase in Anglican-Catholic relations. Charles and Queen Camilla sat before Michelangelo's Last Judgment as Leo and Archbishop Cottrell led the service — the first such shared prayer by heads of both churches since England's split from Rome in 1534.
Later in the day, the king received the title of "Royal Confrater" at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, a gesture reciprocated by the pope, underscoring the visit's theme of reconciliation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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