Pope Benedict XVI urged people worldwide on Friday to abandon violence and coexist peacefully in his Christmas address on Friday.

In his Urbi et Orbi ("to the city of Rome and to the world") address, the Pope invited people around the globe "to abandon every logic of violence and vengeance." He focused on the situation in the Middle East, Iraq, Sri Lanka, the Korean Peninsula and other hot spots.

The Pope urged Catholics in Europe and North America "to leave behind their selfish and technicist mentality."

He also conveyed the Catholic Church's solidarity with the victims of natural disasters and poverty. Summing up his speech, he said "the Church everywhere proclaims the Gospel of Christ, despite persecutions, discriminations, attacks and at times hostile indifference."

During the Pope's Christmas Eve Mass, Susanna Maiolo, a 25-year-old woman from Switzerland, rushed at Pope Benedict and knocked him down at St. Peter's Basilica.

Immediately after the incident, the Pope, who was uninjured, began the Mass. Maiolo has been placed in a hospital for apparent psychological disturbances. One cardinal broke his hip during the incident.

VATICAN, December 25 (RIA Novosti)