Thanks, Hutch, for a thoughtful post. I am agnostic (if God exists, he should give me a sign, but so far he hasn't done so), raised in a protestantic family. My direct experience with the catholic church is very limited, but there was one catholic priest at school who impressed me with his warmheartedness and positive attitude.
Later on I learnt, of course, about abuse stories, why choir boys have such magnificent voices, and why
"Mother" Teresa should have ended in jail, not as a "saint". John Paul II was a pretty disgusting pope, with his backwards Polish style of catholicism.
Then came Ratzinger, "our" German pope. I still vividly remember the day when he was elected, and grinned into the camera. My utterly spontaneous thought was "oh well, Satan has arrived in the Vatican". No joke. Now, today, it turns out that he protected abusers while he was a bishop. And he denies it, and he lies to the public, until he can no longer lie because there are records that nobody can deny.
Then came Bergoglio, and after a while I realised that this guy really tries to modernise the catholic church, with all his forces, and taking the full risk to end like Albino Luciani alias John Paul I.
Bergoglio has made incredible efforts to overcome the ugly legacy of Wojtyła and Ratzinger. Inter alia, his encyclica
Laudato sì has been the most influential book that a pope has written in the last 50 years at least. The man is fantastic, fullstop.
That's why I am not at all surprised that right wing fanatics hate him so thoroughly.