{"id":3162,"date":"2011-04-22T10:49:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-22T10:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2025-09-28T23:45:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T23:45:50","slug":"the-pope-has-a-televised-townhall-type-q-a-on-good-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3162","title":{"rendered":"The Pope has a televised townhall type Q & A on Good Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE:<\/span><\/strong> Evidently this program "is expected to be rebroadcast by television networks around the world."  From the Telegraph (UK) Pope Benedict admits there isn't a full answer to suffering in rare TV interview<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Pope does Q&A on suffering for Good Friday<\/a><\/p>\n

Dressed in white robes during the Q&A, he sat at a desk and, speaking softly in Italian, answered questions that mainly grappled with suffering. The first came from Elena, a 7-year-old Japanese girl who told the pope many children her age were killed and asked why children have to be so sad.<\/p>\n

"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."<\/p>\n

Trying for words of comfort, the pope told her that "even if we are still sad, God is by your side."<\/p>\n

******<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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."<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Evidently this program "is expected to be rebroadcast by television networks around the world."  From the Telegraph (UK) Pope Benedict admits there isn't a full answer to suffering in rare TV interview Pope does Q&A on suffering for Good Friday Dressed in white robes during the Q&A, he sat at a desk and, speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8820,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions\/8820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}