The Pope washes the feet of 12 priests as part of his Easter duties
Pope Benedict XVI is set to make history by becoming the first pontiff to take part in a televised question-and-answer session.
The pre-recorded programme will be broadcast on the Italian Rai channel on Good Friday afternoon.
People have been sending questions to a special website. Seven have been chosen for the Pope to answer during the 80-minute programme.
The questions have been restricted to the topic of Jesus.
Those selected to put their question include an Italian mother whose son was in a coma for many years and a young Japanese girl affected by the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Others reportedly putting questions include seven Christian students in Iraq and a Muslim mother from the conflict-torn Ivory Coast.
It is thought the question-and-answer session will take place via video link, the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Rome says.
“We proposed it and he accepted it”
Rosario Carello Rai TV host
It remains unclear whether the Pope has seen the questions beforehand or whether the questioners will be able to respond to the answers, he adds.
There has been 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 our correspondent, 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.
The programme will be broadcast at 1410 local time (1210 GMT), so that the Pope is speaking at 1500, the moment Jesus is traditionally believed to have taken his last breath.
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