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The Pope tumbled to the floor after a woman wearing a red top lunged at him during the start of the Christmas Eve service - Source: ONE News -
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A woman the Vatican described as unstable jumped over a
barricade, lunged at Pope Benedict and knocked him to the floor at
the start of his Christmas Eve mass in St Peter's Basilica.
The 82-year-old Pope was apparently not harmed and went on to
finish the two-hour service but an elderly French cardinal in the
papal procession fell to the floor and was hospitalised with a
broken leg.
Television pictures showed the woman, dressed in a red top, jumping
over the barricade briskly and throwing herself against the Pope,
who fell to the marble floor.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the woman, who he
described as unstable, was the same person who tried to jump a
barricade to get close to the Pope at last year's Christmas
Mass.
The Pope, dressed in gold and white vestments, was helped up by
security men and after a few seconds continued the procession up
the centre aisle to celebrate the Mass.
But French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, who has been in frail
health recently, fell to the floor and was taken away in a
wheelchair.
He was hospitalised with a broken femur, Lombardi said.
The woman was detained for questioning by Vatican security police
and was not immediately identified.
The incident, which left Vatican security guards visibly shaken and
bishops stunned, happened at the start of a Mass at which Benedict
led the world's some 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas for
the fifth time since his 2005 election.
For the first time in recent memory, the mass started two hours
before midnight in order to give the Pope more time to rest before
Friday's main Christmas event at noon.
In his homily to more than 10,000 people inside Christendom's
largest church, the Pope urged the faithful to rediscover the
simplicity of the nativity message.
He recounted the traditional Christmas story of Christ's birth in a
manger in Bethlehem and urged Catholics to put aside the
complexities and burdens of daily life and rediscover the path to
God.
"We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and life
and rediscover the path to God.
"We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and
occupations that totally absorb us and are a great distance from
the manger," he said.
"In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us and reach out to us again
and again, so that we can manage to escape from the muddle of our
thoughts and activities and discover the way that leads to him," he
said.
Benedict delivers his twice-yearly Urbi et Orbi message to the city
and the world from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica to
crowds in the square below.
