Irony alert: Pope Francis, the head of a notoriously sexist institution that routinely discriminates against women, is calling for equal treatment of women in the work place.

Vatican Radio reports Pope Francis is now calling for equal pay for equal work, calling compensation disparity between men and women a “pure scandal.”

In a statement made Wednesday at his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Francis called for

equal opportunities in the workplace.

While well meaning, calling for equal pay and equal opportunity for women in the workplace is profoundly ironic, and profoundly obtuse, given the fact that the Catholic Church has a ban on women serving as priests, effectively barring women from any leadership position within the church.

Indeed, in 2013 Pope Francis reaffirmed the essential sexist and discriminatory nature of the Catholic Church by reaffirming the ban on the ordination of women as priests, stating unequivocally that

The Church has spoken and says no. That door is closed.

Writing for RH Reality Check Erin Matson nicely sums up the absurdity of Pope Francis calling for equal treatment of women in the workplace:

There’s nothing quite like a call for equal pay for equal work from a boss who openly denies every actual and prospective woman employee her ability to work as an equal.

Talk is cheap. By paying lip service to social justice concerns Pope Francis may fool some, but the “do as I say, not as I do” rhetoric is transparent in its hypocrisy.

The Catholic Church’s confused and discriminatory attitudes towards women reflects profound moral and intellectual contradictions, and is but one of many reasons that ultimately make the tenants of the Catholic Church untenable by any reasonable person.

As for Pope Francis, despite his sometimes liberal rhetoric, Francis has been a big disappointment. Last year, in a scathing report, the UN condemned Francis and the Catholic Church for protecting and enabling pedophile priests engaged in the sexual abuse of children. And there is strong evidence Francis continues the Catholic Church’s reprehensible policy of protecting pedophile priests from criminal prosecution.

Indeed, the recent moral failures of Pope Francis range from the sinister to the comical. Earlier this year a clueless Francis told an audience at St. Peter’s Square that choosing not to have children is “selfish,” apparently forgetting that he is a celibate man without children.

In February, Francis endorsed corporeal punishment, a form of child abuse, making the perverse claim that parents hitting children is “beautiful” as long as the act of violence against a child is done with “dignity.”

Perhaps most disturbing, last January, commenting on the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Francis declared “one cannot make fun of faith” and that anyone who throws insults can expect a “punch,” offering a tacit justification for terror and violence in response to a cartoon making fun of religious superstition.

In short, despite the friendly facade, and the occasional superficial liberal rhetoric, Pope Francis continues to be a moral failure.