What is happening in this weird world of people?
So some lady knocks down the Pope as he was entering St. Peter's to celebrate Midnight Mass. (Watch the Italian raw footage here.)
And he gets back up amid the cheers of the faithful people who came to worship with him - re the birth of the Savior.
Here's the AP article and some footage of the event.
How good it is to see the Lord watch over each of us, even someone as certain a "target" as Pope Benedict is.
May he have a safe and blessed Christmas.
Den
PS: So was the woman in the red dress "imbalanced" due to some goofy thing in her brain OR was she "unbalanced" because her high heels were to tall and she fell over into the Pope's lap? A question for all international English teachers...
Pope Unhurt After Being Knocked Down at Mass
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 Thursday.
Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
Pope Benedict XVI, at center, prior to celebrating Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday.
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Times Topics: Pope Benedict XVI
Video via MSNBC
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.
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