Pope Talks Japan, Iraq in Rare TV Chat

Pope Benedict XVI marked Good Friday by holding his first-ever televised question-and-answer session. “In His Image” aimed to update the Catholic Church’s image as the pope offered prerecorded responses to questions from around the world. Among the seven questioners was a 7-year-old in Japan, who asked why her country faced such tragedy, Reuters reports. “We do not have the answers but we know that Jesus suffered as you do,” Benedict told her.

A Muslim woman from the Ivory Coast sought the pope’s advice amid political turmoil that has left 1,500 dead; he suggested she view Jesus as a guide. “Violence never comes from God, never helps bring anything good, but is a destructive means and not the path to escape difficulties,” he said. To a mother whose adult son is in a coma, he said the man’s soul remained in his body. Benedict also called on Iraq's Christians to "to resist the temptation to emigrate," notes the New York Times. (More Pope Benedict XVI stories.)