Pope Francis strolled through St Peter's Square on Saturday evening during the last frigid hours of 2016, exchanging New Year's Eve greetings with the faithful.
Francis made his way through the crowd to pray in front of the life-size Nativity scene following the traditional Vespers, also called evening prayer, inside St Peter's Basilica.
Along the way, he stopped to kiss children on the cheek and shake hands with well-wishers, occasionally accepting small gifts that he handed off to his body guards. People in the crowd held up their smartphones and tablets to snap pictures of the Pontiff.
