Dublin, Ireland, Oct 23, 2025 / 18:04 pm
King Charles III has acted contrary to the oath made at his coronation and should now “let someone else take his place, who is a true Protestant and who will take their vows seriously,” a prominent Free Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland said after the king prayed with Pope Leo XIV on Thursday in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
Rev. Kyle Paisley, the son of firebrand Democratic Unionist Party founder Ian Paisley, made the statements in a letter to Newspapers in Northern Ireland and subsequently in an interview on BBC Radio as well as other media outlets.
In the Sistine Chapel prayer service, King Charles, the supreme governor of the Church of England, accompanied by Queen Camilla, sat at Pope Leo’s left-hand side as the pope and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led prayers.
The historic meeting and prayer service was also publicly lamented by the Orange Order, an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. The group decried the ecumenical prayers as a “sad day for Protestantism,” expressing “great sadness” and raising its objections in the “strongest possible terms.”
In his comments, Paisley questioned whether the historic prayer in Rome was “cynical timing” coming 500 years after the printing of the New Testament in English by William Tyndale, something he claims still has the papacy “licking its wounds.”
“At his coronation, the king affirmed that he was a true Protestant and promised to uphold the religion of the established church in England as well as that of the Church of Scotland, which is historically Protestant,” Paisley said. “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 at all what he says he is — a true Protestant.”
He added: “Protestantism takes the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice. Romanism does not. Her rule of faith and practice is the Scriptures as interpreted by the Church — that is, by the Roman Catholic Church — and tradition. This effectively makes the Church the rule of faith and practice. God’s word on its own is not enough for her.”
Wallace Thompson of the Evangelical Protestant Society in Northern Ireland agreed with Paisley, though he did not call for the king’s abdication. He told the BBC: “The issues that were there at the time of the Reformation are still there — deep, deep doctrinal differences. The two churches are so far apart that you shouldn’t feel you can engage in joint prayer — conversation, yes. This is symbolic. The king gives certain values at his coronation to maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant reformed religion established by law. He is sending out a signal now that really deep down, he doesn’t want to do that.”
Paisley’s statements also took issue with King Charles and other British royals attending the recent Requiem Mass for the Duchess of Kent, herself a Catholic.
Doubling down on his views, Paisley posted a statement on social media ahead of the Sistine Chapel prayer: “It is a crying shame that no evangelical Christian MP [member of Parliament], or member of the House of Lords, has spoken out publicly about the king’s blatant compromise of his oath, evidenced in the planned act of corporate worship with the pope.”
He continued: “The chair in St. Paul’s Basilica, which has the king’s emblem on it, is not an empty ornament but is there for him to use on any occasion he visits.”
Seeing in this honor Rome’s long-term aim of a complete reversal of the Reformation, Paisley said: “The deadly beast has been licking the wounds inflicted on it by the Reformation and now sees her way to complete healing, aided and abetted by a king who is not true to his word and by a British government and foreign office, and a British prime minister, who are about as godless as they come.”
Paisley’s father, the late Rev. Ian Paisley — the fiery Ulster evangelical Protestant and politician — was virulently anti-Catholic. In 1959 following the visit of the Queen Mother, King Charles’ grandmother, and Princess Margaret, his aunt, with Pope John XXIII in Rome, he accused them of “fornication and adultery with the antichrist.”
Upon the death of John XXIII, the senior Paisley proclaimed: “This Romish man of sin is now in hell.”
In 1988, Ian Paisley was physically ejected from the European Parliament for bellowing: “I denounce you, antichrist” at Pope John Paul II during his official visit. Pope John Paul II watched calmly as the Ulsterman was removed from the building.
Afterward Paisley told reporters he had been “assaulted” by Roman Catholic deputies. He added: “The European Parliament is Roman Catholic dominated. Mary is the Madonna of the Common Market.”
Despite his similar views of the Catholic faith, Kyle Paisley on the death of Pope Francis offered his sympathy to “devout Roman Catholics who looked up to him as the head of their Church and the guide of their faith.”
King Charles III has met the last three popes — most notably meeting Francis shortly before his death in April.
Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI both traveled to Britain, but meetings with the members of the royal family did not include joint prayers.
Prince William, the heir to the throne, attended the funeral of Pope Francis, and Prince Edward, brother of the king, was present at Pope Leo’s inauguration Mass in May.
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Charles will become Catholic on his deathbed. The state of the “church” over which he is forced to preside is killing him.
Henry VIII declares that a layman can be pope of England; Queen Elisabeth I breaks altogether with the validity of priestly orders under the Apostolic Succession; now the sola Scriptura layman Paisley demands that the king of England leave the ecclesial communion (not “church”) of England…AND 85 percent of Anglicans have already left because of the zeitgeist female layman now selected as head honcho at Canterbury (https://www.christian.org.uk/news/global-anglicans-announce-break-in-communion-from-church-of-england/
And, after 500 years, our Catholic pope is featured by the media for simply praying with one of two billion scattered Christian laity, and who happens to be the King of England. After 2,000 years, what are we missing here?
If Paisley is “Sola Scriptura”, then HE should be under attack by Charles, as Henry meted out some of his anger on Lutherans as well as Catholics.
The British Monarchy is an inbred anachronism. Of course it’s rich that Charles and his Mother did nothing to defend their community against non-Christian novelties such as female and an openly homosexual clergy, not to mention twiddling as England contracepted itself to death and now it is under mass invasion from Islamists.
But this arouses this clown Paisley? Has he dared criticize the beheadings in the UK? No, because that would irritate the English thought police.
Time to put more coals under Henry Tudor’s fire.
Prayer heals. Religion is a humble tool for the service of God’s Creation. Ancient ancestors believed in the principle of “Divide and Rule”. Modern pilgrims are zealous practitioners of “Unite and Serve”.
“Unite and serve.” Yes, but what exactly is “unity”? And, about the difference between religions and faith in the person of Jesus Christ, is there a difference between convergence and conversion?
For an interreligious perspective, this reflection from Benedict XVI:
“[Apart from the descents of Krishna] Christian faith, on the other hand, holds firmly that, in Jesus Christ, God really came into the world in a way that is historical, not symbolical. This does not mean that the Krishna-myths have no value. But the way in which a Christian can understand them is different from the fusion with Christ that occurs in Hinduism. Fotr the Christian, Krishna is a dramatic symbol of Christ, who is [!] reality, and the relationship is not reversible [….]
“Christian faith goes beyond the domain of merely symbolical knowledge and enters the realm of historical and philosophical reason; its intention is to say only what is in accordance with reason and so to address reason itself, to make it an instrument in the act of conversion [….] Its purpose is to lead out of the past and to guide to a new knowledge. Because it proposes both truths and facts, it is not just the preserver of tradition in a limited circle; from the beginning, it has existed as the recipient of facts and the revealer of truths that forced its first confessors to leave the place where they were and to call others into the new community [….]… the Christian faith, in its early days, found its ally, not in other religions, gut in the great philosophy of the Greeks.
“The Christian mission borrowed the criticism of the mythical religion from Greek enlightenment and thus continued the line of Old Testament prophets and wisdom teachers who, in their criticism of the pagan gods and their cults, spoke the language of the enlightenment [….] In the struggle for the human soul, it regarded, not the existing religions, but rational philosophy as its partner, and, in the constant disputes among the various groups, it aligned itself with philosophy” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Questions about the Structure of Theology, in “Principles of Catholic Theology,” Ignatius, 1987).
SUMMARY: Again: “Unite and serve.” Yes, but what exactly is “unity”? And, about the difference between religions and faith in the person of Jesus Christ, is there a difference between convergence and conversion?
I must say I didn’t see this coming.
According to the elder Paisley, the European Parliament is Roman Catholic dominated.
His son can relax.
Son of Ian Paisley, a good choice for a Son of Frankenstein sequel to smash hit horror movie Frankenstein. Just in time for Halloween.
If son Rev Kyle Paisley would have his way he’d perhaps consider reviving the Ulster Special Constabulary.
Rev. Kyle Paisley‘s reaction was predictable.
Popery is his ultimate nightmare as it was for his deceased father.
But the paradox is that his Protestant cult and its allies are the only obstacle left in Ireland to the aggressive secularism that has hollowed out once predominantly Catholic Ireland.
A Protestant teacher Enoch Burke was jailed for contempt in September 2022 for objecting to using a transgender student’s preferred name and pronouns,
He has since spent more than 500 days in prison and amassed fines of €79,100 as of February 24, 2025, according to online records.
Catholicism in Ireland, on the other hand, has largely been silent.
The irony is that orthodox Irish Catholic resistance to secularism finds its allies in Rev Kyle Paisley.
I liked Ian Paisley . Not because he was right but because he had standards he wouldn’t compromise.
Later in life he mellowed out some and I hope that will be an example for his son.
There’s a very good film “The Journey”, based upon Ian Paisley and Martin McGuineness’s friendship. It’s worth watching.
What sad irony.
Leo Flanagan above (1:37 p.m.) – Wonderful observation!
Along the same line, here in Ontario it was a Baptist student who was expelled from a Catholic school for saying there are two sexes, male and female.