Earlier mass doesn't signal papal illness

VATICAN CITY, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A Vatican move to hold its Christmas Eve midnight mass two hours earlier does not indicate health problems for Pope Benedict XVI, officials say.

Father Federico Lombardi said Monday the move was planned months ago in order to give the pontiff more time to rest between his rigorous Christmas Eve and Christmas Day activities, The Times of London reported.

"There is no cause for alarm," Father Lombardi told the newspaper, adding that the change was made to "tire the pope a bit less."

He said Benedict, 82, will read the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" blessing to the city and the world on Christmas Day as usual.

Papal biographer Andrea Tornielli told The Times that Pope John Paul II always held the Christmas Eve mass at midnight even while he was in the final years of his decline before his 2005 death.

But the newspaper also noted that Benedict has a busy travel schedule planned for next year, including a trip later in the year to Britain when he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th Century Anglican convert to Roman Catholicism.