In Rajya Sabha, Chairman Krishan Kant took the unusual step of making a statement on behalf of the House requesting for the Pope to be treated as an ``honoured guest''.

``This is time for us to show that religious fundamentalism and terrorism would never succeed in the country'', he ruled.

In Lok Sabha, the Government faced the embarrassment of the TDP reminding it of its ``constitutional responsibility'' to ensure communal harmony. TDP leader Yerrannaidu's statement was cheered by the Congress.

Hoping to put an end to the controversy, Home Minister L K Advani sought to reassure the Lok Sabha that the Government would not tolerate any disrespect to the Pope during his visit.

However, his brief interventionwas offset by a diatribe from former Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar who stunned many in the House with allegations about Christian funding of terrorist outfits in the North East.

Clearly mindful of Sonia Gandhi's presence in the House, Katiyar tried to link the Pope to Rajiv. Surprisingly, Congress benches did not respond to the insinuations.

In the Rajya Sabha, the entire opposition staged a walkout following a row with House leader Jaswant Singh over his choice of words while referring to the Pope. The objection was to his reference to the Catholic tenet of ``repentance''. Reacting to the VHP demand for an apology from the Pope for alleged atrocities on Goan Christian 400 years ago, Singh said:``repentance was very much part of Christian ethics but there is not any expectation or any demand''.

This was objected to by Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee and was followed by noisy exchanges between the treasury benches and the opposition parties -- primarily the Congress and the Left before thewalkout.

Replying to the impromptu debate started by Eduardo Falario of the Congress, Jaswant Singh said that the Opposition fears about threats of disruption to Pope's visit were ``over-stated''.