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VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday prayed the Angelus before crowds gathered in St Peter's Square, observing a post-Christmas tradition two days after surviving a dramatic assault.
The 82-year-old pope appeared serene as he waved to pilgrims and tourists from his apartment overlooking the famous piazza.
He pronounced a special Angelus prayer to Saint Stephen, an early Christian "proto-martyr" traditionally remembered on the day after Christmas.
On Thursday, Pope Benedict was bundled to the ground by a woman who surged over a barricade and past bodyguards to assault him during Christmas Eve mass at St Peter's Basilica.
The pope was unhurt in the incident, while a prominent French cardinal was among others who fell in the confusion and will receive a hip replacement Sunday morning, a Vatican spokesman said.
On Friday, Pope Benedict appeared confident during the delivery of his traditional Christmas Day "Urbi et Orbi" blessing broadcast around the world.
Thursday's assailant, identified as 25-year-old Susanna Maiolo with Swiss-Italian nationality, told doctors she "did not want to hurt" the pope, La Repubblica newspaper reported.
The Vatican said security prevented the woman from carrying out a similar manoeuvre on the same occasion a year ago.
The Vatican will judge Maiolo's case "in the following days", according to spokesman Federico Lombardi, pending medical reports from the psychiatric hospital where the woman is being held.
Lombardi said that "the matter is more to cure her" than to judge her.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, meanwhile was receiving visitors Friday at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, Lombardi said, describing him as well "both physically and mentally (and) optimistic about the operation".
He is facing the situation "with his usual courage and optimism", Lombardi said, noting that the elderly cardinal had recently returned from a trip to Vietnam.
- AFP/yb
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