To be fair, historically the Jews were a small group of seemingly unimportant people. The Persian and Egyptian nations were both more advanced technologically and culturally. Although that is not necessarily saying much. Evidence suggests that the Jews were a somewhat nomadic agrarian society which was focused primarily on farming livestock. While at the same time the Egyptians and the Persians were developing mathematics, irrigation and basic metallurgy and engineering. Small nomadic populations tend not to focus on advancing their society, as their population is normally too small and busy and there is little actual selective pressure to promote advancement.
However, with that I must state that this does not make the Jews at the time inferior, it simply means that at the time the Egyptians and Persians were more advanced civilizations. I think in this case with regards to the cardinal, its a case of him being right to a degree, for all the wrong reasons.