the attack of the pope

The pope was supposed to speak at the opening ceremony of La Sapienza university in Rome but he cancelled because of protests from university professors who pointed out that this pope has a bit of an anti-free academic history. The pope gave a speech in 1990 also at La Sapienza where he said that he thought that the trial of Galileo was right and just. Pope John Paul in 1992 admitted that the earth did not stay stationary, only three centuries after Galileo was tried for heresy.
The pope in a blatant hypocritical remark said this weekend "I encourage all of you, dear academics, to always be respectful of the opinions of others, and to seek the truth and the good with an open and responsible mind because we might jail and torture you just as we did to Galileo." Ok, so that last bit I might be misquoting him, but of course for the physicists at the university this is actually what is happening since there many in the general public who are calling for their jobs.
So lets analyze this carefully: You are not allowed to disagree with the pope or you will lose your job.
There was a large crowd at the Vatican this last weekend in what the media is calling support of the pope although apparently there were protesters there too.
The real hypocrisy is that the pope was the one who cancelled his own visit and now is playing the victim and crying saying that he doesn't get to speak. boo-hoo. Um, mr. pope, sir? Don't you get to speak to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people every week? The professors are not asking you not to speak, just not at their ceremony where you will be given an open position to attack academic freedom (as you did last time).