THE Moderator of the Church of Scotland is to travel to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis, it has emerged.

The Rev John Chalmers will have a private audience with the pontiff in the Vatican, in one of only a handful of meetings between the holders of both posts in hundreds of years.

The meeting between the two men has been arranged in part by the Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh Leo Cushley, a former Vatican diplomat who has worked closely with both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict.

The Rev Chalmers will meet with Pope Francis on February 16.

The last encounter between a Moderator of the General Assembly and a pontiff occurred in 2001, when the Right Reverend Andrew McLellan was granted a short private audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

His predecessor, the Right Rev John Cairns, met John Paul II on a tour of the Holy Land, while the late pope also met the Rt Rev Professor John McIntyre on his visit to Scotland in 1982.

Both clerics will be expected to discuss a range of issues, although no details are being made public at this stage.

However, there is a hope the meeting could become an annual event.

Rev Chalmers said: "I am honoured to be able to meet with His Holiness Pope Francis. I hope to be able to discuss a range of issues including how faith is regarded in the 21st century.

"I will also share with His Holiness my sense that for some years now ministers and priests have found new levels of friendship. People's attitudes have changed as they have come to see in 'the other', first a shared humanity and then a shared faith."

Archbishop Cushley said: "I am very pleased that this year's Moderator, Rt Rev John Chalmers, is to have a private audience with Pope Francis.

"John and I talked about it several times, and I know that he was keen to meet the Holy Father. I am certain that he will receive a very cordial welcome.

"The Church of Scotland is an important voice among the world's Reformed Churches, and so I would also be pleased if the visit were gradually to grow into an annual event, as is the case for example with the visits of the Archbishop of Canterbury."

On the first ever visit to the UK by a Pope, John Paul met the Rev McIntyre and other representatives of the Church of Scotland outside the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh.

Described by one of those in attendance as as "a slightly haphazard and relaxed affair" for such an historic occasion, the Moderator welcomed John Paul II as "our brother in Christ" and "a man of peace".

During the 2000 meeting, held at Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox church and arranged by its Greek patriarch, the Moderator praised the Pope's attempt to reconcile all faiths during his visit to the Holy Land. The meeting the following year discussed relations between the two churches in Scotland.

However, relations between the Church of Scotland and the Vatican went through something of a chill in 2010 following Pope Benedict's views on the Reformation and Scottish sectarianism, which were described as "unhelpful" by leading figures in the Kirk.

In a statement issued by The Vatican, Pope Benedict described the 16th-century Reformation, which split the two faiths, as a "great rupture" that had led to religious intolerance.

But Kirk ministers disputed the pontiff's description and expressed concern that he had chosen to draw attention to sectarianism in Scotland.