ROME
Gazzetta del Sud

Rome, July 20 – An Australian cardinal leading efforts to clean up Vatican finances has courted controversy again – after a much-criticised stance on sex abuse – by chiding Pope Francis for his landmark encyclical on climate change. George Pell, who last year likened a typical victim of sex abuse to hitchhikers, and the Church to the truck they happened to have taken, told the Financial Times that the Church had “no particular expertise in science”. Pell told the Financial Times the church had “no particular expertise in science”. “The Church has got no mandate from the Lord to pronounce on scientific matters,” he said, adding “we believe in the autonomy of science.” Pell’s comments came a month after Francis released his historic encyclical, ‘Laudato si’, calling on humanity to fight global warming. …

Pell is a well-known climate change skeptic. He was appointed to…