The expertise of another world-leader
Pope Pius XII, known to some as 'Hitlers Pope' also seems to have regarded himself as an expert on all manner of subjects. Here is the historian John Cornwell:
"If he showed signs of grandiosity it was in his tendency to expatiate on an ever expanding range of topics. So numerous and so beyond his competence were these specialised talks, or 'allocutions', that the practice seemed symptomatic of ripening delusions of omniscience. He lectured visiting groups on subjects such as dentistry, gymnastics, gynaecology, aeronautics, cinematography, psychology, psychiatry, agriculture, plastic surgery, and the art of newscasting. A visitor to his study once remarked on the piles of fat manuals around his desk; Pacelli responded that he was preparing a talk on gas central heating. When T S Eliot, arguably the leading English-language poet and literary critic of his day, came to the Vatican for a private audience in 1948, Pacelli delivered him a lecture on literature."
(the text above was cribbed from http://www.hootingyard.org)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
