Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1901 — Queen Victoria and the Pope. [ARTICLE]

Queen Victoria and the Pope.

“Did Queen Victoria ever meet Leo XIII?” asks the London Chronicle. “There have been statements asserting an old personal friendship between them, and, on the other hand, assertions that they never met at all. The truth lies between the two extremes. When Pope Leo was Monsignor Pecci, and nuncio at Brussels at the court of King Leopold, widower of the Princess Charlotte, he met Queen Victoria and her husband. According to some accounts the queen invited the nuncio to Windsor. That was not the case. But the nuncio came on his own account to London for the month of February, 1846, and during his stay he witnessed a great ceremonial in which the queen took part, and was invited to a state reception, but was not specially presented. The passages of kindness between the pope and the queen were exchanged by letters, and at a much later date."