Pope Benedict XVI has delivered the traditional Christmas message at St Peter’s square in Rome, his first as pontiff. He said humanity needed a spiritual re-awakening in the third millennium, without which it would become a victim of its own intelligence.

He also said that mankind must be united to face common threats such as terrorism, poverty and disease, and stressed the need for peace in the Middle East. The address is made every year to the globe’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics and ends with the Urbi et Orbi blessing – literally meaning “to the city and to the world”.

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