‘Whatever they do in the Vatican, I’m staying Catholic.’

The pontificate of Pope Francis has been a tempestuous affair these last dozen years, to say the least. There has been much controversy. There have been many disappointments. And it would be hard to argue that some of the blame for the quarrels and squabbles does not rest, at least in part, with the recently departed Holy Father.

We ought not be surprised by that, however; Pope Francis, though he possessed a holy and sacred office, was a man. He made mistakes. He sinned. At times, he may have even acted obstinately, unwisely, or unjustly — just like the rest of us.

Of course, things have not been all bad. Christendom, generally, and the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, specifically, have continued to grow rapidly, especially in the developing world. In the years that Pope Francis sat in the Chair of Peter in Rome, the Church has added tens of millions of souls across Africa and Asia — no small miracle, and one that is sure to change the course and direction of the next few centuries, regardless of what happens in the West.

And yet, even in decadent Europe and North America, there is life: France, the eldest daughter of the Church, baptized 17,800 catechumens during the Easter Vigil. Adult baptisms increased a stunning 45 percent since last year. As recently as 2015, no more than 3,900 adults were baptized in France.

In England, there have been reports of a “quiet revival” as “parishes up and down the country” witnessed “a steady growth in interest and attendance, especially among the young” in the period before Easter. There has been an encouraging and exciting move by Gen Z into the church, with some predicting that over the next generation, Catholics will overtake Anglicans as the leading Christian communion in Britain for the first time since the Reformation.

And in the United States, after years of decline, the church’s trajectory has seemed to stabilize. The seminaries are drawing more and more young men, though still too few in number, who are self-consciously orthodox and committed to preaching the Gospel in an increasingly secular age. According to one survey, a full 80 percent of priests ordained since 2020 consider themselves “conservative/orthodox” or “very conservative/orthodox.”

A Western Catholic dead-cat bounce? Perhaps. Or maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye, as we should expect if we take our faith seriously. Green shoots often appear after a hard rain.

As has always been the case, things will get better, and worse, in the next pontificate. Indeed, however it may have felt living through it, things were better, and worse, in the years of Pope Francis.

I don’t mean to suggest — because I don’t believe it to be so — that it doesn’t much matter who the man is who leads Christ’s Church here on earth or the quality of his character, his actions, his theology. It does matter, immensely. But it also, in very important and sublime ways, is less vital than we might sometimes think.

The Christian God does not always work through dramatic revelation. He does not always work through the great and powerful. He does not always unfurl His majesty for all to see. Sometimes, He speaks with “the still small voice” — or acts through us in the ways that shape the fortunes of all.

Thanks be to God that no matter what happens now — whether the next pope is a latter-day Saint Gregory the Great or another Boniface VIII — the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church, as our Lord Jesus Christ promised us.

I’m reminded today of two quotes that have helped keep my own faith strong in the ten years since I swam the Tiber at Easter 2015.

First is the remark that Hilaire Belloc is reported to have said to William Temple in Repton, England. “The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine,” Belloc said, “but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.”

The Canadian writer David Warren reported the second, a mantra which he attributed to a “wise old Czech.”

“Whatever they do in the Vatican, I’m staying Catholic.”

Indeed, and let us remember to not be afraid.

Pope Francis, pray for us. All holy men and women, pray for us.