Talisker you make excellent points. What you see and what you (and your family) are experiencing are both very real. Most will currently blame it on Francis but there has been a rift in the Catholic Church since Vatican II. It has just reached its boiling point via Francis because he is the most emboldened Modernist pope since that time. Catholics are trying to make sense of the crisis in the Church and what you are seeing and experiencing is the direct result of that.
Thank you for the validation and acknowledgement, I’ve found both to be extremely rare. And yes, I also believe it’s Vatican II fallout. Ironically, Vatican II only exacerbated what it claimed to heal - the Church cannot be all things to all people. It must declare itself and stand firm, something it - was - famous for. Pope Benedict famously said he’d rather have a smaller, more defined and focused church than a larger, more diffuse and confusing church, and I agree. There’s bones and there’s flesh, and it’s a catastrophe when each tries to be the other.