We have had some bad or mediocre bishops here in Vermont, and a mix of parish priests.
Currently, we have a priest from the Philippines as our parish priest. In other words, we used to send out priests to the Third World, but now they are sending them to us. He is a good man, thankfully, better than most of our former American priests. But I don’t think he’ll stay here more than three years, and who knows what we’ll get next?
Anyway, I agree with you that the Pope will have no influence on my Catholicism. As long as we have the Sacraments properly performed, that’s what really counts. But sadly our church has pretty well emptied out over the years.
Similar situation in Maryland.
We had a priest from Cameroon- thank God for him! He was excellent and even years younger than many of the other priests, he gave good example.