I think youre overlooking the fact that, as an individual, he has influenced and touched millions and millions of people. Regardless of whether you agree with the motives behind the believers, he was a man who inspired, motivated, and did more with his life than any of us every will.
I am as far from catholic as you can get but that does not stop me from respecting a man who dedicated his entire existance to something he believed in with every fiber of his being.