Pope Benedict delivered his traditional Christmas Day blessing this morning, looking tired and unsteady but otherwise fine just hours after being knocked down by a woman who jumped the barrier at the start of Midnight Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican said the 82-year-old Benedict was unhurt in the fall and that his busy Christmas schedule would remain unchanged.

French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, an 87-year-old Vatican diplomat, fractured his hip in the commotion and will be operated on at Rome's Gemelli hospital, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

Lombardi identified the woman as Susanna Maiolo, 25, a Swiss-Italian national with psychiatric problems.

He said Maiolo, who was not armed, was taken to a clinic for necessary treatment.

She was the same woman involved in a similar incident at last year's Midnight Mass, Vatican officials said.

In that case, Maiolo jumped the barricade but never managed to reach the pope and was quietly tackled to the ground by security.