DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: The leader of the Roman Catholic Church is about to deliver his Christmas Day message. For more on that story we go right to Linda Stouffer at CNN Center in Atlanta. Good morning, Linda.</s>LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. A Merry Christmas to you, David. In fact, he has just begun. As we mentioned in our last hour, it has been a very unique Christmas in Vatican City. It's also been a difficult year in the cradle of Christianity. And that's what the pope pointed out during his homily during midnight mass last night. Now, he is speaking now and he's expected to touch on some of the same themes in his annual message to the city and to the world. You're looking at a live picture now out of Vatican City. We'd like to listen in for a moment.</s>POPE JOHN PAUL II (through translator): ... and the finger of man stretching out to each other and almost touching. There seems to leap an invisible spark. God communicates to man a tremor of his own light, creating him in his own image and likeness. That divine breath is the origin of the unique dignity of every human being, of humanity's boundless yearning for the infinite. It is to that instant of impenetrable mystery, the beginning of human life on Earth, that our thoughts go back to today as we contemplate the son of God who becomes the son of man, the eternal face of God reflected in the face of a child. The first man, Adam, became a living being. Because of the divine spark placed within him, man is a being endowed with intelligence and freedom, and thus is capable of deciding responsibly with regard to himself and his own destiny. The great fresco of the Sistine Chapel continues with the scene of original sin. The serpent...</s>STOUFFER: That is Pope John Paul II, translation of what he is saying during his Christmas Day address. You've also been looking at live pictures of that life-size nativity scene just outside Saint Peter's Basilica. The Pope is standing on the steps of the Basilica there.
Pope John Paul II Delivers Christmas Day Message in St. Peter's Square