Pope stars in TV 'chat show'

Published on Friday 22 April 2011 18:59

POPE Benedict XVI took questions from a child in Japan, a Muslim woman in Ivory Coast and a mother caring for a son in a permanent coma, in his first televised dialogue with the public, broadcast yesterday.

The German-born pontiff, like his Polish predecessor John Paul, has allowed rare televised interviews with journalists, but his direct contact with the public marked a new step for the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

While the interaction was heavily controlled by Vatican officials, the broadcast was an attempt to freshen the image of the Church by the Pope, who on Thursday lamented the decline of Christian faith in the western world.

The programme, called In His Image, was broadcast on Italian television in mid-afternoon, and contained seven questions from selected participants around the world.

Following roughly the format of an Italian TV chat show, with a moderator and a panel of experts before a studio audience, the programme included pre-recorded responses from the Pope speaking via video link to questioners.

Sitting at his desk, the Pope told the mother of a man who has been in a long-term coma that her son's soul was still in his body and that he could feel the presence of love.