text: What's your point?  
  
  I said the matter wasn't that complex.  You seem to want to tell us what you've been reading whether it applies or not.  
  
  The 'ugliness' comes - not from this or that effective or ineffective leader, president or pope - but instead from millions of ordinary humans NOT pursuing heroically what another VII document (Lumen Gentium) mentioned, namely the universal call to holiness.
  
  If more lay Catholics understood this point and taken it to heart for constant action - leveraging all the help from the Church - the means of prayer life, the Mass, the Sacraments, especially Holy Communion and Holy Confession - then there wouldn't be so many hard hearts in the world....some who kill unborn children, some who perpetuate racism, some who cheat on their spouses, some who abandon their parenting responsibilities or who execute them with lackluster attention. 
  
  Racism is just an instance of vice, out of many others that lower our world's tone of civility and Christian joy.