As a left-leaning assembly in Ecuador prepared to rewrite the country's constitution, Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern that the new basic law must "promote and reinforce" freedoms enjoyed up to now by the Catholic Church and guarantee religious liberty for all its citizens, writes Robert Mickens.

"The Church's freedom of action, besides being an inalienable right, is the primordial condition for being able to carry out its mission among people, even in difficult circumstances," he told Ecuador's new ambassador to the Vatican, Fausto Codovez Chiriboga, last Saturday. Pope Benedict told the ambassador he was also concerned that the new constitution should protect "all the rights" of citizens, including "full respect for life from its conception to its natural end".

An overwhelming majority of Ecuadoreans voted to redraft the constitution last month in a referendum that was promoted by the socialist President Rafael Correa. The 44-year-old leader, who is a friend of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, took office last January on a promise to craft a new basic law that would drive traditional "elites" from power.  Since then he has told political rallies that "the long night of neo-liberal policies is over".

Pope Benedict cautioned that "political instability" and "weak social structures" could bring turmoil. He said it was "necessary and urgent" to ensure order that would guarantee "peaceful coexistence, co-operation, the respect for human rights and, above all, the recognition of the central place of the human person, his inviolable dignity".