Jon,
Where to start?
The Pope is a theologian. He does not have a problem with religious tolerance. He has advocated it in the past. Consider where the Pope was and what he was doing when he made the comment you cite. He was reaching out to settle a thousand-year-old split between the Eastern and Western Church. He’s even met with Catholic critic Hans Kung.
I take the Pope’s comments to be a critique of the inability of Christians to agree on what they agree on. They all worship the same God and read the same Bible (with or without Tobit). You can take it as much as a criticism of the past Catholic Church as anything else. Besides, freedom in the West long antedates the Reformation.
Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam all have their divisions as well.
