2023-06-04 09:04:07
The Italian television station Rai 1 broadcast an interview with Pope Francis on Sunday morning. For the interview as part of the Catholic program “A Sua immagine” (In His Image), the church leader entered a television studio for the first time ever. “The media must help people to find each other, to understand each other, to make friends,” Pope Francis said in response to questions from moderator Lorenza Bianchetti.
At the beginning of the interview, the Pope said that he had never been in a television studio. “Yes, there was one in the Buenos Aires Diocese, but it was very small,” he recalled. When asked regarding his health, he said, “I’m still alive.” In March, the pope was admitted to the Roman polyclinic “Agostino Gemelli” because of breathing difficulties. He reached the television studio in a wheelchair.
The television interview was organized by Father Marco Pozza, pastor of the Padua prison. Actually, it should have been recorded on March 29th in a Roman prison. However, the appointment fell through because the Pope was taken to the Gemelli Clinic on that very day.
Pope Francis discussed the major current issues of this time with the moderator. He spoke regarding the difficulties everyone faces in daily life, regarding the aggressiveness that permeates social life and finally regarding the role that communication and information must play in this scenario.
Present in the studio were a nun from Turin, Agnese Rondi, who takes care of people with disabilities, and Fausto Desalu, Olympic champion in the 4×100 meter sprint relay. He was accepted into Italy as a child of Nigerian immigrants. Also present were Serena and Matteo, a young couple who had met Pope Francis at the Gemelli Hospital. The two had been embraced by the Holy Father following losing their little daughter.
The religious program has been produced in cooperation with the Italian Bishops’ Conference and Rai for 26 years and is always broadcast on Sunday mornings before the Pope’s Angelus prayer. Francis had already given the show an interview in 2022 on the occasion of a special broadcast for Good Friday. On March 4th of this year, the head of the church also received the editorial staff in audience. He also announced that he occasionally watched the religious Sunday show himself. He told the editors that they should continue to strengthen solidarity and reduce indifference and give people in need a voice.
During Sunday’s Angelus prayer, the Pope called on the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for peace in Ukraine. He also sent his condolences to the families of those who died in the train accident in India. More than 260 people lost their lives in the accident in a rural area of the Balasore district, a good 200 kilometers south-west of Kolkata (formerly: Calcutta).
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