Twofer of Incompetence

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion. [1 Timothy 1.7]

Saint Augustine, On the Literal Meaning of Genesis

No doubt because of the Pope’s immense expertise regarding the oil industry and as a climatologist:

Pope Francis on Saturday issued a dire warning to top oil executives, saying that climate change could “destroy civilization.”

At a two-day conference at the Vatican, the pope called climate change a challenge of “epochal proportions,” according to Reuters.

He also said that the world must move toward using clean energy and a reduction in the use of fossil fuels.

“Civilization requires energy but energy use must not destroy civilization,” Francis said.

The conference, organized by the University of Notre Dame in the United States, brought together executives from asset manager BlackRock, BP and Norwegian oil and energy company Equinor, among others.

Go here to read the rest.  The Pope is the head of a Church that, in his own words, is hemorrhaging vocations.  The Irish, once among the most ardent of Catholics, have just embraced the child-murder that goes by the name of abortion.  Catholics face persecution and murder in many parts of the globe.  There is more than enough there to keep a Pope busy if he lived a hundred years.  Instead, Pope Francis, and he is sadly not unique in this, squanders the moral capital of the Church on issues which clerics clearly have no expertise.  It often seems as if our clergy, having done a lousy job in running the Church, seek secular plaudits by embracing causes trendy among Western elites, while the Gospel of Christ goes un-proclaimed and the People of God perish for lack of a shepherd truly concerned about the spiritual well-being of his flock.  If you are a member of our clergy and bored by the Gospel you are paid to proclaim and defend, do yourself and the rest of us a favor and resign your position.