ROME — In his first question-and-answer television appearance, shown by Italy’s national broadcaster on Friday, Pope Benedict XVI urged the Christian minority not to abandon Iraq and offered his thoughts on euthanasia and the tsunami in Japan.

In a segment recorded last week and broadcast on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, the pope, dressed in white and seated behind a desk in his library, responded to questions from seven people selected from among thousands of submissions.

Like the book-length interview the pope published last November, the television appearance seemed aimed at helping him speak more directly with his followers, exactly a year after a sexual abuse crisis in Europe plunged the Roman Catholic world into a tailspin and revealed profound problems of communications at the Vatican.

There were no curveball questions among those selected by Italy’s RAI state broadcaster — and nothing about the sexual abuse crisis. On Thursday, Benedict addressed the crisis in a liturgy, speaking of “the shame we feel over our failings,” but adding that “there are radiant examples of faith,” including his predecessor John Paul II, who is expected to move one step closer to sainthood at a beatification Mass on May 1.