I am stunned, simply stunned, that catechesis was so bad back then. They gave you "inviolable and unchangeable" systems of "Faith and Morals" instead of teaching you prudence and justice, hope and love? You were taught to treasure unchangeable language and gestures at mass, instead of delighting in the life giving presence of the Holy Spirit? You didnt know which was eternal, the words or the Word?
You should have learned that Catholicism  has been forged by threats internal and external. Dante has a few saints in Hell because they supported the wrong political party. Conclaves are named for "con clave," with key, because people would argue and intrigue for months without choosing a Pope.
The anti-modernist campaign in the last century was a pox on the Church. It encouraged political alliances that drove wars, like the Spanish Civil war. You should be glad the modernists prevailed over a Church stuck in the past unable to even talk to others.