In Boston, beautifying Jean Paul II doesn't inspire everyone

Cardinals kissed the casket of late Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica following his beatification on Sunday. Via NYTimes.

A Boston Globe column by Kevin Cullen tries to convey the pain of the portion of his flock the dead pontiff didn't serve. He describes a 1994 letter from Bob Costello to the pope.

Costello was an altar boy at St. Theresa’s in West Roxbury, and a predator in a Roman collar named John Cotter routinely molested him. Cotter would follow him into the pool and put his hands down his swim trunks.

“On the inside, I was dead,’’ Costello wrote to the pope.

Costello felt a shame he could share with no one. He started stealing drinks from his grandfather’s liquor cabinet.

“I think it was the first time I really wanted to die,’’ he wrote to the pope. “I was both physically and mentally raped of everything I knew. My world was dark.’’

No response came from the Vatican.

Fr. Tom Doyle was another whistle-blower whose warnings were ignored.

Barry Bonds, the greatest home run hitter of all time, is now considered a cheat who will probably be denied entry into the Hall of Fame. Pope John Paul II is now just one step from entering his church’s hall of fame.

“Major League Baseball has higher standards than the Vatican,’’ Father Doyle said. “And that’s not saying much for Major League Baseball.’

I've never written before about Roman Catholic Church's child molestation scandal. Not my church; not my business. I usually look away, just glad it wasn't the authorities of the denomination I belong to. We have our problems, smaller scale -- perhaps smaller only because we are smaller scale? I hope there's a better reason, but I won't confidently pretend I know.

But I am drawn into the pain Kevin Cullen so effectively shares here. What a terrible thing to have to live the contradictions of Church so immediately. The thought aches.