Pope Benedict XVI waded into a crowd of well-wishers in Rome on Sunday, just days after he was knocked down by a woman at a Christmas Eve Mass. It the 82-year-old pontiff's first appearance outside the Vatican since the attack, which left him unhurt but raised security concerns.
Security was tight but Benedict greeted well-wishers as usual. He kissed some children and caressed the hands of others as he entered a soup kitchen operated by the Sant'Egidio Community, a lay Catholic group based in Rome, a few kilometers from the Vatican.
The pope has kept up his busy holiday schedule despite the incident, in which a woman jumped a barricade in St. Peter's Basilica and pulled the pope to the ground as she was taken down by guards. On Sunday, the pope delivered the traditional Angelus prayer from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square before traveling to the soup kitchen in Rome's Trastevere neighbourhood. GPD © AP
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