PJP II: Not All As & Bs?

When Pope John Paul II died recently, I wrote a tribute praising his contributions to the death of communism, his strong stance against dilution of his denomination's teachings, and his stance against moral relativism. The details of my post are unimportant now, but it started a long thread concerning Popes and religion in general that I will try to recapture in Vita ab Alto.

Monk

Izmud started the comments:

Pope John Paul II may have been notable and respected for many of his achievements in his lifetime, most particularly in the international relations realm. However,IMO he also bungled the handling of the priest sex scandal cases, and his hard-line stance on modern social issues has led to a Church-admitted net loss of the faithful averaging 10-15,000 per month worldwide! While conservatives may agree with his stance on these issues, or admire his doggedness in refusing to bend to modern convention and liberalism, the bottom line is that his effectiveness as a leader of a group of people comes into question if his numbers are dropping rather than rising. So, a mixed report card overall for the late Pope.

Izmud