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 progressed 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.

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Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Mass on Christmas Eve in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. He prayed that the faithful would become more like Christ. The Associated Press

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.

Friday’s service saw no such interruptions. In his homily, Benedict recalled the birth of Jesus, which is commemorated on Christmas, and prayed that the faithful today become more like Christ.

“Help us to recognize your face in others who need our assistance, in those who are suffering or forsaken, in all people, and help us to live together with you as brothers and sisters, so as to become one family, your family,” he said.

In addition to the past breaches, security was also vigilant Friday due to the package bombings a day earlier at the Swiss and Chilean embassies, for which anarchists claimed responsibility. The two people who opened the envelopes were injured.

The bombings followed a violent anti-government protest last week in Rome’s historic center and a fake bomb found Tuesday on a Rome subway.

The Vatican identified the pope’s 2008 and 2009 Christmas Eve assailant as Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian national with a history of psychiatric problems. In 2008, the pope’s security detail blocked her from getting to him. But in 2009, she jumped the wooden security barrier.

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