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WORLD : Pope Calls for Borderless Europe

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From Times Wire Services

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.

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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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