Sure there were many heroes in the Catholic Church prior to Francis who were doing good work but my experience in the 1980s / 1990s was that it was all about the rules and the things that we shouldn't do.  I remember learning about everything that was sinful in Catholic school and all the stuff that was bad and wrong, especially everything related to sex, but I was never taught to develop a personal relationship with God.  I always envied the Protestant kids because they got to go on mission trips while we just prayed the Rosary.   And Catholic parishes are cesspools of gossip and backstabbing, not communities of faith.  I believe that this is because of the "leadership" from Rome under JPII/ Benedict which encouraged people to tattle and try to outdo each other with purity tests.  Benedict said he wanted a smaller and purer Church and it isn't shocking this trickled down to the parishes.