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ter's Basilica, returning to rest in his Vatican lodgings barely 12 hours before he was due to return to the basilica.
• At noon (1100 GMT) Wednesday, Francis was scheduled to deliver a traditional Christmas day message meant for a worldwide audience. Tens of thousands of tourists and Romans are expected to gather in St. Peter's Square for his speech and blessing delivered from the central balcony of the basilica.
• At the Tuesday night Christmas service, Francis drew on the humility theme of his nine-month-old papacy as he cited Jesus' humble beginning as a poor and vulnerable baby. "You are immense, and you made yourself small; you are rich, and you made yourself poor; you are all-powerful and you made yourself vulnerable," Francis said of Jesus as he delivered his homily in the basilica, packed with the faithful.
• He noted that the first to receive news of Jesus' birth were shepherds, who in society were considered "among the last, the outcast."
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• SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A federal appeals court has refused yet again to stop gay marriage in Utah, making it more likely that same-sex weddings in the home of the Mormon church are here to stay for the immediate future.
• The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' rejection of Utah's request for an emergency order to put gay marriage on hold marked yet another legal setback for the state. Utah lawyers have repeatedly struck out in their bid to block gay marriage, getting rejected on four occasions in recent days.
• Utah's last chance to temporarily stop the marriages would be a long-shot request before U.S. Supreme Court. That's what the Utah attorney general's office is prepared to do, spokesman Ryan Bruckman said. Gov. Gary Herbert's office declined to comment on the decision.
• "We're disappointed in the ruling, but we just have to take it to the next level," Bruckman said.
• Carl Tobias, a constitutional law professor at Virginia's University of Richmond who has tracked legal battles for gay marriage, said he expects the U.S. Supreme Court to make a decision by Friday. He thinks Utah faces long odds to get their stay granted, considering two courts have already rejected it and marriages have been going on for days now.
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