Vatican City:Pope Benedict XVI, in a pre-recorded appearance on Italian state TV, replied to some of a few thousand questions submitted by Catholics and non-Catholics alike on the solemn day when Christians reflect on the suffering and crucifixion of Christ.Benedict told a Japanese girl frightened by the devastating quake and tsunami in her homeland that suffering isn't in vain and assured a Muslim woman in violence-wracked Ivory Coast of the Vatican's peace efforts as he conducted an unprecedented televised question and answer session to mark Good Friday.
The unusual TV appearance was broadcast a few hours before Benedict was due at a service of prayer and meditation in St. Peter's Basilica. Later, he was expected at the Colosseum for the traditional Way of the Cross procession.- Dressed in white robes during the question and answer period, he sat at a desk and, speaking softly in Italian, answered questions that mainly grappled with suffering.
The first came from Elena, a seven-year-old Japanese girl who told the pope many children her age were killed and asked why children have to be so sad.- "I also have the same questions: Why is it this way? Why do you have to suffer so much while others live in ease?" Benedict said. "And we do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do, an innocent."
- Trying for words of comfort, the pope told her that "even if we are still sad, God is by your side."
- He said the girl should tell herself: "One day, I will understand that this suffering was not empty, it wasn't in vain, but behind it was a good plan, a plan of love."
A Muslim, speaking from Ivory Coast, where months of political stand-off have been marked by deadly fighting, asked the pope: "As an ambassador of Jesus, what do you advise for our country?"Benedict told her the Vatican is doing what it can, and recalled that he has asked an African cardinal from among his aides to go to Ivory Coast "to try to mediate, to speak with the various groups and various persons to encourage a new beginning."
"The only path is to renounce violence, to begin anew with dialogue," the pontiff added.
Another question came from young people in Baghdad, where Christians have been fleeing warfare and persecution to the alarm of the Vatican.- "We Christians in Baghdad are persecuted like Jesus," came the question, along with a plea for advice on how to help fellow Christians reconsider their desire to emigrate.
- Benedict replied that he prays daily for the Christians in Iraq, and urged them to "have faith, to be patient."
Still another question came from a woman whose middle-aged son has been in a vegetative state since Easter 2009, and who wanted to know if his soul had left his body.- Benedict assured the mother that his soul is "still present in his body," comparing the situation to a guitar with broken strings. "The instrument of the body is fragile like that, it is vulnerable, and the soul cannot play, so to speak, but remains present," the pope told her, adding: "I am also sure that his hidden soul feels your love deep down."
The Vatican's campaign against euthanasia is an important part of Benedict's papacy, and has condemned those who would remove breathing devices or feeding tubes from those in a vegetative state, although Catholic teaching holds that faithful do not have to use extraordinary means to keep people alive.- While the session departed from the Vatican's usual Good Friday routine, elsewhere in the world, ancient Christian practices continued to mark the day.
- In Occupied Jerusalem, Christian pilgrims filled the cobblestone alleyways of the old section of the city to commemorate Jesus' crucifixion in the city two millennia ago.
Thousands of international visitors and local Christians retraced Christ's last steps down the Via Dolorosa, which is Latin for "Way of Suffering."The route ends at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered as the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
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