re: What ever happened to...
I think you mean You couldn't live in Italy and criticize the Pope. Not every country in Europe has remained "historically" Catholic (and consequently as protective of the Pope) since the Reformation ... or did you forget where Wittenberg Cathedral is?
Hint: It's the same country where Nazi speech is "hate speech", and illegal -- for good reason.
Scandinavia's part of Europe, too. So's England, where they've been calling the Pope a bastard since Henry VIII, except for the reigns of Bloody Mary and the Stuarts.