VATICAN CITY, MARCH 9, 2011 (Zenit.org).- On Good Friday, Benedict XVI will appear on a television program of the Italian channel RAI to answer three questions about Jesus.
The feature with the Pope will appear April 22 on the Italian-language program «A Sua Immagine» [In His Image]. It will be recorded a few days before the broadcast.
The public is invited to submit questions, which may be chosen for the interview, through RAI’s Web site.
In an interview on Vatican Radio, the television program presenter, Rosario Carello, explained that the initiative was born from the appreciation that Good Friday is a particular day.
«Up to a few years ago,» he noted, «television was also aware of this difference and aired programs that induced at least to reflection.»
«This sentiment has been lost,» commented Carello, and «today television on Good Friday is a day like all the rest for all channels: There are even fights and gossip.»
For this reason, he explained that his program seeks to «recover the historical program, ‘Domande su Gesu’ [Questions on Jesus], to again place at the center Jesus’ case on the afternoon of that day, at the same hour of the death of Jesus.»
Carello recalled: «The idea was: There are many questions on Jesus that come from the television spectators, who find in the studio interlocutors to answer, but it would be extraordinary if it were the Pope himself, who is so attentive to listening and to dialogue, who responded.
«How lovely it would be if the public could ask questions and the Pope would be the one who responds.»
«We thought we were mad even to think about it,» he added, «but we saw in Pope Benedict’s style something that induced us at least to suggest the idea: We suggested it and behold, the Pope accepted.»
Knowing Christ
Carello noted, Benedict XVI realizes that «if we don’t know Christ well — and we don’t know him well, he himself says so in the preface to the first volume of ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ — then we don’t love him very much and can hardly believe in him.»
Observing that the second volume of «Jesus of Nazareth» will be published soon, the television presented added that the Pontiff, «is committed to having people discover who Jesus is or, better yet, the truth of the correspondence of the evangelical Jesus with the historical Jesus.»
Carello affirmed that the idea of being able to interview the Pope had great success immediately, so much so that people, learning about the proposal, are already beginning to «flood» the editorial office with submissions.
«We will read them all and see if some questions prevail over others,» he stated. «Those that seem the strongest, the most present, but also those that are able to open a stronger debate, we will take to the Holy Father.»
Carello said that one of the most impressive aspects of Benedict XVI is his «clarity.»
In fact, he said, the Pope «is able to express concepts, which are often complicated in themselves, in such a simple but at the same time satisfactory way, that the brain understands it and the heart is animated by them.»
«It is a very great gift of this Pope that, I believe, little by little the whole world is beginning to discover,» Carello stated.
He concluded, «Given that television speaks to all, this occasion of Good Friday will be an extraordinary demonstration of this capacity, of this gift that the Pope has and that he puts constantly at the disposition of the Church and of the world.»
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On the Net:
Television program (in Italian): www.asuaimmagine.rai.it/R2_HPprogramma/0,,241,00.html
