Pope Forgives Christmas Eve Attacker

Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Midnight Mass

The Pope meets and forgives the woman who lunged at him on Christmas Eve

The young woman who knocked Pope Benedict XVI to the floor in St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve has apologised to him in a face-to-face meeting.

The Vatican said the pontiff had "a brief private meeting" with Susanna Maiolo where she "apologised for what happened".

A statement said: "For his part, the Pope wanted to show her his forgiveness."

Maiolo, a 25-year-old Swiss-Italian, stunned pilgrims on Christmas Eve when she leaped over a security barricade and dragged the 82-year-old pontiff to the floor.

The Pope was unhurt in the attack.

Maiolo had tried to reach him in the same way during the 2008 midnight mass service but did not manage to get to him.

She has been treated at a clinic outside Rome since the incident last month.

While there, she received a visit from Benedict's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, who wanted to show the pontiff's concern for her well-being, the Vatican said at the time.

A retired Vatican diplomat, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, fractured his hip in the commotion and needed surgery. Benedict visited him in hospital last week.

Benedict's decision to meet Maiolo and forgive her follows a similar gesture by Pope John Paul II, who met and forgave the man who shot him in 1981.

They met while Mehmet Ali Agca was serving a 19-year sentence in an Italian prison for shooting the Pope in St Peter's Square.

Agca, 52, was released in 2000 but sent back to Turkey to serve a 10-year prison sentence for killing a Turkish journalist in 1979.

He has said that on his release, scheduled for next Monday, he will explain why he shot John Paul II, who died in 2005.

Little is known about why he carried out the shooting although one theory is that Bulgaria and the Soviet KGB might have conspired to kill the Polish-born pontiff, who was a fierce critic of Communism.