ATF, you may want to recheck your statement that vocations went down under St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

"Worldwide, the Catholic Church has seen an increase of more than 6,000 priests during Benedict’s papacy, most of them to the diocesan priesthood, according to data collected by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). The number of diocesan priests in the world exceeded 277,000 in 2010, levels higher than those recorded in 1970, the year Paul VI introduced the new form of the Roman liturgy."
http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/benedicts-men-u.s.-vocations-strengthen-during-his-eight-year-papacy#.WQi4WSMpDqA

There was a decrease early on in JPII's pontificate in the US...but even that began to turn around.