I disagree with you. Did bad things happen? You bet, like the whole Dignity organization. Vatican II wasn’t the problem, it was the rebels and those of ill will.
My take is that JPII realized people were interpreting V-II incorrectly, and tried to refocus. His Theology of the Body talks were to support Humana Vitae, as well as highlight the Church’s unchanging position on all aspects of human sexuality. That’s just one example. Additionally, his re-stating and highlighting orthodoxy is given as a primary cause for an increase in vocations.
BXVI took it a step forward, by teaching, in a more accessible manner, not only the eternal truths, but also demonstrating the lineage of the teachings.
Francis is demonstrating Faith through Action. While preaching daily, he also demonstrates what he teaches.
I will say that we have a difference of opinion on Vatican II and where Angelo Roncali will spend eternity and leave it at that.
About our Holy Fathers: all of them find out pretty quickly that what they say, goes. JPII immediately rehabilitated Sr. Faustina and changed the rules to canonize her. (the change from which his own cause benefits) Benedict XVI quickly righted a great wrong by issuing his moto propito about the Tridentine mass, then when storms shook the ship of the Church, he found the lifeboat and bailed. And the self-styled “bishop of the diocese of Rome” nevertheless used his pontifical powers to find a way to make someone he approved of a Saint of the Catholic Church, despite the previously slackened rules.
So they know they can do what they want. So, when something is conspicuously left undone by a saint like JPII(Vatican Bank, sex scandal, “gay lobbies” in the church) what are we poor laity to believe, what we hear from the Vatican, or our own lying eyes?