Pope Benedict admits there isn't a full answer to suffering in rare TV interview

The Pope has spoken about the tsunami in Japan, conflict in Iraq, the civil war in Ivory Coast and victims of multiple sclerosis in an unprecedented television appearance due to be broadcast in Italy on Good Friday.

More than 3,000 questions were submitted after the initiative was announced a month ago Photo: REUTERS

By Nick Squires, in Rome 12:01PM BST 22 Apr 2011

For the first time in the history of the papacy, Benedict XVI agreed to take part in a programme in which he took questions from ordinary Catholics.

More than 3,000 questions were submitted after the initiative was announced a month ago, of which seven were chosen and put to the 84-year-old pontiff.

One of the most moving was put by the parents of a 40 year old man who has suffered from multiple sclerosis since 1993 and has been in a vegetative state for the last two years.

Francesco and Maria Teresa Grillo asked Benedict whether the soul of their son Francesco remained within his body or was elsewhere given his degenerating mental state.

The Pope, speaking from his office in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, told them: "Certainly his soul is still present in his body.

"The situation is a little like a guitar which has had its strings broken and can no longer be played....the soul cannot be heard but it remains within.

"I'm also sure that this hidden soul can feel your love, even if it cannot understand the details, the words. But it feels the presence of love."

The parents' round-the-clock care for their son was "a testimony to faith in God, to respect for human life," the Pope said.

He also answered a question from a seven-year-old Japanese girl who was caught up in the tsunami about why so many children had to suffer in natural calamities.

"I ask myself the same question," he said. "We don't have the answers, but we know that Jesus suffered as innocent children suffer."

Benedict also responded to questions about the civil war in Ivory Coast, calling for greater dialogue between Islam and Christianity, and the dangers endured by Christians in Iraq.

The programme, In His Image, was recorded last week and will be aired on Italian state television at 1.10pm GMT.

It is expected to be rebroadcast by television networks around the world.

@http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/8468312/Pope-Benedict-admits-there-isnt-a-full-answer-to-suffering-in-rare-TV-interview.html