Thaindian News

London, April 23 (IANS) Pope Benedict XVI held a televised question and answer session on Italy’s public broadcaster to mark Good Friday, a media report said.

The Pope responded to questions about tsunami in Japan, civil war in the Ivory Coast and whether a person in a vegetative state still has a soul, Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

The interview was recorded last week in a Vatican library and aired on Italy’s public broadcaster, RAI to coincide with Good Friday and the moment of Christ’s death at 3 p.m., according to the newspaper.

He fielded seven questions, out of more than 2,000 that were submitted when the programme was first announced earlier this year.

The initiative was seen as an attempt by the Vatican to repair the pontiff’s image after a series of public relations debacles, including rows over the use of condoms to prevent Aids, the rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying British bishop and the Church’s much-criticised response to paedophile priest scandals, the Telegraph said.

Responding to a question, Benedict told a seven-year-old Japanese girl left traumatised by the country’s earthquake and tsunami that he had no answers for why there is so much suffering and pain in the world.

The girl, named Elena, said her house had been shaken by the quake and that many children of her age had been killed in the natural disaster.

“I also have the same questions: why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease,” the Telegraph quoted Benedict as saying. “And we do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do, an innocent.”

The next question came from a woman whose 40-year-old son has been in a vegetative state due to multiple sclerosis, and who wanted to know if his soul had left his body.

Benedict assured her that his soul was “still present in his body”.

The 84-year-old pontiff also responded to a question from a Muslim woman affected by the civil war in Ivory Coast, urging “all sides” to stop fighting.

He told a group of Iraqi Christians that he prayed for their community every day and encouraged them not to flee the country, despite persecution from the Muslim majority.

Since being elected Pope in 2005, Benedict has pushed the use of mass communications and social media networks such as YouTube to convey the Church’s message.