By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI ushered in Christmas Eve with an evening Mass on Friday amid heightened security concerns following the package bombings at two Rome embassies and Christmas Eve security breaches at the Vatican the past two years.
Benedict processed down the central aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica at the start and end of the Mass without incident; with his normal phalanx of bodyguards on either side, he stopped several times to bless babies held up to him from the pews.
During the same service in 2008 and 2009, a mentally disturbed woman lunged at the pope as he processed down the aisle – and last year she managed to pull him to the ground.