Pope takes questions in TV show

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The Pope washes the feet of 12 priests as part of his Easter duties

Pope Benedict XVI has made history as the first pontiff to take part in a televised question-and-answer session.

The pre-recorded programme was being broadcast on the Italian Rai channel on Good Friday afternoon.

Seven questions were chosen from thousands submitted for the Pope to answer during the 80-minute programme.

Most of the questions, from people across the world, deal with the struggle with suffering.

The first question was asked by a seven-year-old Japanese girl traumatised by the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Another was from Christian students in Iraq.

The programme was recorded in the Vatican library a week ago, and was timed to go out on Good Friday afternoon – around the time Jesus is traditionally believed to have taken his last breath.

It has been met by scepticism from some who say the programme has largely been on the Vatican’s terms, and coincides with the publication of the pontiff’s book as well as Good Friday.

But, says the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Rome, the event marks a further move by the Pope to embrace new ways of transmitting his message of hope and renewal.

Until now, he has only ever taken questions from journalists on planes during foreign trips.

The show’s host Rosario Carello said the project initially seemed “crazy”, but they saw “something in Pope Benedict’s style that caused them to at least propose this idea to him”.

“We proposed it and he accepted,” he is reported by the Catholic News Agency as saying.