Pope Unhurt After Being Knocked Down at Mass

By RACHEL DONADIO

Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press

ROME — An “unbalanced woman” jumped the barriers in St. Peter’s Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as walked down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass, a Vatican spokesman said on Thursday.

But the pope quickly got back on his feet and celebrated Mass before thousands of people, urging them in his homily to become “truly vigilant people.”

Television images showed a woman in red leap toward Benedict as he began to walk up the central aisle, as the police and bodyguards scrambled to the aid of the 82-year-old pope.

The woman also knocked down Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, said the spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Vatican police took the woman in for questioning, and Cardinal Etchegaray was taken to the emergency room for a checkup, the ANSA news agency reported. The woman did not appear to have “malicious intentions,” ANSA said.

It was not immediately clear whether she was the same woman stopped by the police last year after she attempted to lunge at the pope as he left the Basilica.

The incident in St. Peter’s was the second high-profile security breach in Italy this month. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spent several days in the hospital after a man with mental problems struck him in the face with a statuette of the Milan cathedral, breaking his nose and two teeth at a campaign rally in Milan.

During Christmas Eve Mass, the pope appeared tired at times, but celebrated the ritual without incident.

But for the first time in recent memory, Christmas Eve Mass began at 10 p.m. instead of midnight, in what Father Lombardi said was an effort to help Benedict preserve his strength for his intense schedule over the Christmas season.

Benedict is said to be in generally good health, but last summer he broke his wrist in a fall at the house in northern Italy where he was spending his summer vacation.