Pope John Paul's call for Europe to affirm its Christian roots has highlighted a growing controversy in Brussels about whether to refer to religion and God in a proposed constitution for the European Union.
The dispute pits traditionalists against secularists and also exposes the very different historical legacies and constitutional arrangements of the 15 member states and the 13 candidate countries, which include Muslim but secular Turkey.
In a historic address to the Italian parliament yesterday, the Polish-born Pope referred to the new "institutional shape" of Europe taking place and said it should be firmly grounded in the continent's traditional Christian values.
"I would like to renew the appeal... 'Europe, at the beginning of the new millennium, open once again your doors to Christ'," said the 82-year-old Pope.
"It is my hope that... the new foundations of the European "common house" will not lack the "cement" of that extraordinary religious, cultural and civil patrimony which has given Europe its greatness down the centuries," he said.
Last week, the Pope made the same appeal privately at the Vatican to Valery Giscard D'Estaing, head of the Convention on the Future of Europe, which is drawing up the constitutional blueprint due to be presented to EU leaders next summer.
Giscard, a former French president, is a practising Catholic but has not said whether he thinks the new constitution should refer to Christianity or to religion at all.
Giscard caused a furore days after his audience with the Pope by expressing his opposition to admitting Turkey into the EU given its "different culture... (and) way of life", saying such a step would mark the end of the Union.
Ali Tekin, a Turkish member of the 105-member Convention, branded Giscard a "Christian fundamentalist".
But the veteran statesman is not alone in his views. Members of the European Parliament's largest grouping, the centre-right People's Party (EPP), said this week that Turkey should have only associate membership, not full accession.
The EPP, dominated by Christian Democrats, unveiled its own draft EU constitution which invokes Europe's religious heritage.
One paragraph reads: "The Union values include the values of those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good and beauty as well as of those who do not share such a belief but respect these universal values arising from other sources."
The wording was inspired by the preamble of the constitution of Poland, the Pope's homeland and the biggest of the mostly ex-communist candidate countries hoping to join the EU in 2004.
"The Christian value system is part of Europe's cultural heritage. A constitution which omitted this would be a house without a foundation," Joachim Wuermeling, a German centre-right member of the European Parliament, said yesterday.
But for civil libertarians and secularists, any wording in the new constitution that emphasises the special role of Christianity is seen as inappropriate or even offensive in a modern, multi-racial, multi-confessional society.
"Europe is not a Christian club," said Pierre Moscovici, the French government's representative on the Convention, this week.
"In the enlarged Europe that we are building, a Europe of 500 million people, there are and will be Muslims who will also have their place," said Moscovici, a Socialist.
Strongly secular France successfully led efforts two years ago to suppress any reference to religion in the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights adopted with the Nice Treaty which is expected to be incorporated into the future constitution.
Some other EU member states are more comfortable with references to religion in their constitution.
For example, Ireland - a traditionally pious Roman Catholic country - refers in its constitution to "Almighty God". Germany also has a reference to God and the Greek constitution underlines the role of the Greek Orthodox Church.
John Palmer of the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think-tank, said he did not think the final constitutional text would contain any specific reference to Europe's Christian past.
"We should bear in mind that we already have a significant Muslim population inside the EU. More people go to the mosque every week than go to church in some places... And Islam is a very ancient religion in Europe," he told Reuters.
"Of course the new constitution should refer to Europe's values, but they are not necessarily those of Christianity. They are the values of the European enlightenment, of democracy and human rights and respect for minorities," Palmer said.