Topless Activist Tries to Steal Baby Jesus From Vatican

A topless "sextremist" attempted to grab the baby Jesus from a Nativity scene at the Vatican while yelling "God is woman" just hours before Pope Francis' Christmas Day address, Reuters reports. The woman, who also had "God is woman" painted on her back, hopped guardrails in St. Peter's Square and made a dash for the Jesus statue. She was apprehended and detained while trying to grab the figure. The woman is a member of Femen, a Ukraine-based feminist group with the goal of "complete victory over patriarchy." The group identified her as Alisa Vinogradova. Another member of Femen actually got the Jesus statue in St. Peter's Square before being arrested on Christmas three years ago.

About two hours after the topless brouhaha, Pope Francis gave his address to 50,000 or so people in St. Peter's Square. "The winds of war are blowing in our world and an outdated model of development continues to produce human, societal, and environmental decline," the AP quotes the pope as saying. The pope went on to call for a two-state solution in the Middle East and peace with North Korea. (More Vatican stories.)