The Catholic church ruled the world for many years and then people like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, John Wycliffe and more stood up against the tradition and stared to obey the bible.
The protestant reformation was founded on justification by faith alone and sola scripture.
Has the world forgotten this and is the Catholic church regaining its power?
The greatest benefit the world received from the protestant movement was the liberation of the Bible from the restrictions of the catholic authorities.. The protestant movement sought to justify their rejection of the catholic religion by giving the scriptures to the common people via Mass printing the Bible and translating it from the Latin into the languages of the common peoples of the different European countries..
Once the people started reading the Bible they could gain access to the ACTUAL Word of God rather then the twisted false traditions/ blasphemies of the catholic religion that had done so much damage to the harvest of the LORD.. Vast fields of catholic tares rather then fields of Christian wheat suddenly had sowers of the actual seed of the Word being sown amongst them..
Of course that did not mean all the varied protestant offshoots actually followed / interpreted the Word of God correctly.. Many false cults sprang up amongst the protestant movement.. But at lest the common man and woman could get their hands on an actual Bible and at lest have an opportunity to embrace the Gospel truth that saves..
As for the current situation.. I believe We are now experiencing the great end times falling away from the truth.. Part of this falling away will be many people embracing false religions.. So the catholic religion being one of those false religions might gain some more followers in the last days.. But other false religions will also gain adherents too..
That may sound depressing and yes it is a sad thing to think about.. But it also gives true followers of The LORD Jesus hope that the second coming of our LORD Jesus is near..