WORLD : Pope Calls for Borderless Europe
Pope John Paul II, speaking from the mountains where the 800-year reconquest of Spain from Muslim invaders began, called today for a united Christian Europe without frontiers.
On the final stage of his three-day visit to Spain, the Pope celebrated mass for 700 people crammed into the square in front of the pink-stone basilica set among the tree-covered Peaks of Europe.
“I faithfully propose . . . the project of a Europe without frontiers which acknowledges the Christian roots that are at its origin,” he said.
The reconquest of Spain began in Covadonga in 722, when the small Christian army of King Pelayo of Asturias routed Moorish invaders, making the small northern town a historical landmark.
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