Veteran actor Gabriel Byrne told a radio talker that Pope Francis' public graciousness belies the fact that the religious leader is merely a figurehead who cannot affect the change needed for the Catholic Church.

Byrne, raised Catholic, compared the Pope to President Barack Obama, “Like Barack Obama, a bit like Tony Blair, he’s a figurehead, a CEO – a man who does the bidding of the masters who hide behind him,” Byrne said on The Michael Des Barres Show, which airs online on TradioV.com.

The actor condemned the Church for not allowing priests to marry and forbidding women to serve as priests, adding that the institution is "profoundly anti-women."

“Can one man change an institution? I feel the answer is no,” Byrne says. “He can initiate certain reforms in the Vatican… but unless he radically alters the policies of the Catholic Church there won’t be a change.”

He also savaged Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as being responsible for the deaths of thousands.

[link to www.breitbart.com]