Wharton, //I didn't say that the Pope and his "cronies"//
No, you didn’t – I did.
// (another risible insult?)//
Why an insult? He is surrounded by cronies – but viewed in the sombre light of what they actually represent, ‘risible’ they are not.
You didn’t explain how the atheist in your example discovered that everyone in the country was an expert on popes, but that aside, unless you mean the police should have caught the vandals who broke the window (difficult perhaps if they had chucked the brick and scarpered) I fail to see the relevance of the rest of your post.