Instead, he's talking about some sort of "encounter". Sounds to me like he's saying we can work with atheists of good will to build a more civil and just society here on earth. Nothing very shocking about that. Perhaps, through that experience, atheists can come to an appreciation of the Gospel and grow into people of faith. It's happened before.
It's surprising to me how many people love to believe the Pope said something scandalous, based on any number of "news" articles or "analyses" by third parties pretending to tell us what the Pope really meant, without paying much attention to what he actually said. After all, it's not like the Pope's actual words are hard to find.
Is it that way with every public figure, or is the Pope singled out for that special sort of [cough] affection?
I would hope you are exactly correct in what you (and CatholicVote.org) believe that the Pope was really saying. But isn’t it somewhat baffling as to why the Pope would, first, even put out there a statement that is so ambiguous as to be misinterpreted by so many decent people, including many faithful Catholics; but more even more puzzling is why he’s just letting it hang there! Do not the faithful Catholics of the world deserve some sort of a “clarification”, at least? Even if the clarification came from one of his underlings, it would go a long way to clear up what you and some others believe to be a misunderstanding.