ROME — Pope Benedict XVI used his first televised question-and-answer appearance, shown by Italy’s national broadcaster on Friday, to urge the Christian minority not to abandon Iraq and offered his thoughts on the tsunami in Japan.
In a segment recorded last week and broadcast on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, the pope, dressed in white and seated behind a desk in his library, responded to questions from seven people selected from among thousands of submissions.
Like the book-length interview the pope published in November, the television appearance seemed aimed at helping him speak more directly with Catholics, exactly a year after a sexual abuse crisis unfolded in Europe.
There were no curve-ball questions among those selected by Italy’s RAI state broadcaster — and nothing about the sexual abuse scandals.
On Thursday, Benedict addressed the crisis in a liturgical service, speaking of “the shame we feel over our failings,” but adding that “there are radiant examples of faith,” including his predecessor, John Paul II, who is expected to move one step closer to sainthood at a beatification Mass on May 1.
In the television question-and-answer session Friday, the pope urged Christians in war-torn Iraq “to resist the temptation to emigrate, which is very understandable in the conditions they are living in.”
The program revealed a rich tension between the mysteries of faith and the limitations of the television interview format.
Asked by an Italian man, “What is Jesus doing in the time between His death and resurrection?” the pope answered: “This descent of Jesus’ soul should not be imagined as a geographical or a spatial trip, from one continent to another. It is the soul’s journey.”
Elena, a 7-year-old tsunami survivor in Japan, asked: “Why do children have to be so sad? I am asking the pope, who speaks with God, to explain it to me.”
The pope answered, “This suffering was not empty, it wasn’t in vain, but behind it was a good plan.”
“You can be sure that God will help you,” he added.
The pope also told a woman whose son had been in a vegetative coma since April 2009 that “certainly his soul is still present in his body.”
The television interview was part of a talk show in which a panel of three experts discussed the Crucifixion of Christ. A tagline at the bottom of the screen read, “The pope responds to questions about Jesus.”
Later Friday, Benedict was scheduled to participate in a Good Friday ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica and the annual Stations of the Cross procession near the Colosseum, where Christians were killed in Roman times.
The texts for this year’s procession were written by several nuns, one of the first occasions the pope will read texts prepared by women.
On Friday, the Vatican also announced that Benedict would be the first pope to call outer space. On May 4, he is expected to be in satellite contact with two Italian astronauts aboard the International Space Station when the space shuttle Endeavour docks with the station.
