National Review Online: No “Mixed” Legacy for John Paul II

Colleen Carroll Campbell writes on National Review Online that, despite former (and, might I add, impeached) President Bill Clinton's assessment of the pontificate of the late Holy Father as "mixed", Pope John Paul II led his Church into a springtime:

While on his way to largest funeral in history, former U.S. President Bill Clinton ruminated aloud about Pope John Paul II's legacy.

"He centralized authority in the papacy again and enforced a very conservative theological doctrine," Pastor Bill explained to reporters aboard Air Force One. "There will be debates about that. The number of Catholics increased by 250 million on his watch. But the numbers of priests didn't."

Bill's conclusion? "He's like all of us. He may have had a mixed legacy."

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The true picture is much rosier than the one generally painted by American journalists. Though the number of priests in North America dropped from about 72,000 in 1961 to about 58,000 in 2001, and the number in Europe fell from about 251,000 to about 207,000 priests during that time, other parts of the world have seen a simultaneous explosion of priestly vocations. Between 1961 and 2001, the number of priests in Latin America rose from about 43,000 to about 63,000, the number in Africa climbed from about 17,000 to about 28,000, and in Asia, their ranks shot up from about 26,000 to about 45,000. Last year, the Vatican counted about 405,000 priests worldwide, up from 404,000 in 1961.

The net worldwide increase of priests is offset by the rapid growth of Catholicism and the world's population. There are now more than one billion Catholics in the world, and nearly 15 percent of Catholic parishes today were created in the last 30 years. In many places, more priests are desperately needed to administer to the sacraments to the faithful. But the higher demand for those sacraments is hardly an indictment of Pope John Paul's leadership. If anything, it is a testament to his great gift as an evangelist who traveled to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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That springtime of vocations is only one part of a larger springtime of faith that is blossoming in the Catholic Church, something for which John Paul prayed and struggled throughout his 26-year pontificate. His is not a mixed legacy but one pregnant with possibility, a legacy still unfolding in the lives of young Catholics around the globe.

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Also, see Rich Leonardi's comments on this NRO piece.