I'd follow your dad over this pope any day!!

In the paragraph you quoted, the Pope refers to Freedom "What purpose has a freedom ...." I don't see how the paragraph you quoted leads to the following conclusion you have made -

"Both that man in our car and the Pope feel that learning and thinking are dangerous!" Unless you are saying learning and thinking are the same as 'freedom' - obviously they are different concepts.

Both religion and government would naturally be against learning and thinking. It threatens the very core of their existence. On the religion side, learning and thinking could lead to someone changing their beliefs resulting in a drop in the number of their followers which leads to less money coming in, less control and ultimately, the discovery of whatever it is they are hiding, etc. I have my opinions of what those hidden things may be but nothing has ever and most likely will never be proven. Normally one would have no reason to fear or condemn learning if they weren’t trying to hide something or greatly deceive and lie. Which leads to the government side, they support and attempt to educate an individual enough so that he/she becomes a productive addition to society and have the ability to pass on qualities, laws, traditions, etc. to the following generation which in turn assures that society will continue to flow as they want it to flow and stay manageable and manipulative. Learning becomes a threat to the government when an individual learns from sources other than what they have carefully constructed and designed for whatever the situation could be because it leads to truth (lies and hidden or tucked away facts are discovered), demand for proper justice, realization of their corrupt and flawed system, rebellion or uprising, illusions being unmasked, etc.

Though that is all the positive likely results that could happen if the majority of people would do their own independent learning and stop trusting that everything they are brought up to know as truth is the actual truth. On the flip side, worst case scenario, the world advances their intellect to the point of destroying both systems. As much as I must disagree with several aspects of government and religion I must also admit that we need them to maintain civility and order, at least at this point in time. For example, if everyone woke up tomorrow and it was suddenly fact that there was no God and no hell in which the evil are punished, the law would go unacknowledged, morals and ethics would be forgotten, the government would crumble, chaos would dominate and the world as we know it would finally become the apocalypse most fear of coming. It would quickly make this a very primitive and savage planet for the human race once more. Mass population control would no longer be possible.