Pope Knocked To Floor But Unharmed At Mass Incident

POPE BENEDICT. Photo: AP.

A woman jumped over a barricade at the start of Pope Benedict's Christmas Eve mass on Thursday and lunged at the pope, who was knocked to the floor in the confusion but then resumed the service apparently unharmed.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the woman, who he described as "unstable," lunged towards the 82-year-old pope as he was walking in a procession up the main aisle of St Peter's Basilica to start the mass.

She was the same person who tried to jump a barricade to get close to the pope at last year's Christmas Mass, Lombardi said.

As security men tried to tackle the woman, both the pope and French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray were knocked to the marble floor in the confusion, Lombardi said.

She was taken away by Vatican security. The pope was quickly helped to his feet and, apparently unharmed, continued walking up the main aisle to continue the service.

Etchegaray, 87, suffered a broken femur bone and was taken to hospital, Lombardi said.

Slow motion television footage showed a plastic chair flying into the air as bodyguards rushed around the pope and stopped the woman.

The woman was detained for questioning by Vatican security police, Lombardi said, adding that she was the same person who tried to jump a barrier at last year's Christmas Mass.

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 (11:00 a.m. British time)

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, leading the fifth Christmas season of his pontificate, on Friday 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.