World / Pope Benedict XVI Pope Bounces Back, Visits Soup Kitchen Security heavy for first trip since Christmas Eve attack By Marie Morris, Newser Staff Posted Dec 27, 2009 4:48 PM CST Copied In this photo released by the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper, Pope Benedict XVI, in white in foreground, arrives at a lunch in a soup kitchen in Rome, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO) On his first trip outside the Vatican since being knocked to the ground in a Christmas Eve incident at St. Peter's, Pope Benedict XVI visited a soup kitchen in Rome today. The pontiff, 82, was unharmed when a woman vaulted a barrier and accosted him before Mass. Today he mingled with an appreciative crowd and distributed Christmas gifts to children at the institution, which serves the homeless, reports the Telegraph. (More Pope Benedict XVI stories.) Report an error