Rome - "France, eldest daughter of the Church, what have you done to your baptismal promises? asked Pope John Paul II when he made his first visit to France in 1981.

The Polish pope was honouring France with the title it earned upon becoming the first Christian kingdom following the baptism of King Clovis of the Franks in 496 A. D.

But John Paul was also admonishing modern French society in which Christianity, and in particular the majority Roman Catholic faith, appeared to be losing their importance.

In fact, a 1905 law, in part inspired by the ideals of the 1789 French Revolution - during which the clergy often faced violent attacks - established secularism and banned state-sanctioned or state-funded religion.

When John Paul's successor Benedict XVI travels to France on Friday for his first visit as pontiff, he will confront a country where according to one poll, only half of the 51 per cent of the population who nominally describe themselves as Catholics, say they believe in God.

But Benedict, in his battle to win souls, may have found an unlikely ally in the twice-divorced French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who while describing himself in a book as Catholic of faith, culture and tradition, admitted that his religious practice was "episodic."

In December 2007 Sarkozy visited the pope in Rome where he was inducted as an honorary canon of the Basilica of St John Lateran, a traditional title bestowed on French heads of state since the 16th century.

There, in a speech widely seen as groundbreaking, Sarkozy suggested that France's commitment to "laicite" or secularism and the "suffering" its application had brought "for Catholics, for priests and religious congregations, before and after 1905" should be re-assessed.

"Laicite is to be affirmed as necessary and opportune, but laicite should not mean negation of the past," said Sarkozy, adding: "It does not have the power to eliminate from France its Christian roots."

The words were likely to have warmed Benedict's heart.

So far Sarkozy's overtures have not been translated into concrete actions, according to French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

"Legal recognition of the degrees issued by ecclesiastical universities and faculties, for example, has not been granted, despite the fact that it was mentioned at the Lateran and it would not be a very complicated reform to undertake," Tauran told the newspaper of Italy's Catholic Bishop's Conference, L'Avvenire in a recent interview.

Some observers say they are not surprised by Sarkozy's apparent reluctance to tamper with France's "sacred" secularism given the controversial nature of some of its manifestations, such as the ban on religious symbols in public schools, including Islamic headscarves.

Benedict, who is making his 10th trip abroad since being elected pope in 2005, is also scheduled to meet representatives of France's five million-strong Muslim community as well as those of the Jewish faith and of the country's Protestant churches.

On Saturday, the 81-year-old pontiff is scheduled to celebrate an open-air Mass at Paris' Esplanade des Invalides park before some 200,000 faithful.

Those attending are likely to hear from Benedict some of the themes that are marking his papacy, including the need for Catholics to choose spirituality over materialism.

From Paris, Benedict will fly to the southern town of Lourdes for what the Vatican describes as the main purpose of his French trip - celebrations for the 150th anniversary of what Catholics believe were apparitions made by Jesus' mother, Mary to a local miller's daughter, Bernadette Soubirous.

There Benedict, like the millions of pilgrims who journey to Lourdes every year, is set to visit the grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette and whose waters some believe have healing powers.

This year's anniversary pilgrimages to Lourdes "with many young people, many families with lots of children," provide, according to Tauran, hope for the future of French society.

"They've treated this phenomenon with curiosity and respect, without tones of superiority of facile irony that we've seen in the past. For France, believe me, that's a small miracle," he said. (dpa)