ROME (CNS) -- Making his customary visit to the Rome Basilica of St. Mary Major to pray before his trip to the French island of Corsica, Pope Francis also met and prayed with dozens of actors staging a living Nativity scene.

For the third year in a row, the basilica and an Italian association that promotes the tradition of Nativity scenes, including living representations, turned the neighborhood around the basilica into a small Bethlehem with the manger on the basilica's steps.

After a noon Mass Dec. 14 celebrated by new Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of the basilica, parishes, prayer groups, confraternities and Italian folklore groups provided the actors and the tableau. Marching bands, musicians, singers and dancers performed for the crowd.

Later, after Pope Francis prayed before the Marian icon "Salus Populi Romani," as he does before and after every foreign trip, he met inside the basilica with the living Nativity participants.

With the couple playing Mary and Joseph holding a baby and standing alongside him, Pope Francis told participants, "Christmas always brings us joy. Christmas brings us the tenderness of a baby."

Gazing at a Nativity scene, he said, the newborn baby Jesus "gives us hope," and the image of Mary is a reminder that people can count on "the care of a mother, Our Lady, who accompanies us throughout our lives" and on the example of St. Joseph, who worked to support his family.

Pope Francis also told the crowd that if there was anyone present "who does not have peace in your heart, remember that God forgives everything and God forgives always. Do not be afraid to ask the Lord's pardon because he forgives everything, and he forgives always."

"He came for us, with so much tenderness," the pope said.