Pope celebrates Christmas mass at St Peter's

By Peter Mayer Dec 24, 2011, 23:20 GMT

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated midnight mass on Saturday and stressed that to find God, humankind must shed its 'false' certainties and 'intellectual pride' and see in Jesus' humble birth a sign of hope for the world.

'God has appeared as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace,' the pontiff said in his homily at St Peter's Basilica.

Thousands of people flocked to the ceremony, while many more followed the proceedings on giant video screens in St Peter's Square, on a wet and chilly winter's night.

Benedict, wearing gold-embroidered robes and his bishop's mitre, made his way up the basilica's nave towards the altar on a platform on wheels - a device used by his predecessor, the late John Paul II, during his long battle with Parkinson's disease.

As in recent years, the mass began shortly after 10 pm (2100 GMT). The Vatican said the earlier slot aims to give Benedict a few extra hours of sleep before his Christmas Day duties.

In his mass homily, the 84-year-old pontiff prayed to God 'the One through whom love will triumph' who, Benedict noted, had chosen to appear on earth as an infant.

'We love your childish estate, you powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we ask you: manifest your power, O God,' Benedict said.

But people must also play their part, Benedict added, saying that 'if we want to find God ... then we must dismount from the high horse of our 'enlightened' reason.'

'We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God's closeness,' he said.

At one stage during the ceremony, a Korean girl, dressed in a 'hanbok' - the traditional costume of her homeland - read a prayer.

Security around the pontiff was tight.

During the same ceremony in 2009, a mentally disturbed Swiss-born woman, Susanna Maiolo, leapt over a barrier and lunged at the pontiff, knocking him down. Benedict was unhurt in the resulting fracas, but an elderly cardinal suffered a broken leg.

Earlier on Saturday, the pontiff lit a 'peace' candle from the window of his study overlooking St Peter's Square, where a Nativity scene that recreates the scene of Jesus' birth was unveiled.

The story narrates how Jesus' mother Mary and her husband Joseph, unable to find lodging, sought a manger for shelter.

The Nativity scene stands next to the Vatican's Christmas tree - this year a 30.5-metre spruce from Ukraine's south-western Zakarpattia region.

Benedict has encouraged Catholics to display their own Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, both 'spiritual' symbols representing Christ's appearance on Earth, according to the German-born pontiff.

On Sunday, Benedict was slated to deliver his Christmas Day blessings and traditional Urbi et Orbi message 'to the city and to the world.'