Gay author dishes on the Catholic Church

By Larry Nichols
PGN Staff Writer
© 2008 Philadelphia Gay News

Ultra-religious Catholics usually aren’t very high on anyone’s list to have a long conversation with on a bus, at a party or even in a church parking lot. But author Scott Pomfret has achieved the rare feat of tempering his pride and faith with a level of humor and open-mindedness that is refreshing.

His recently released book, “Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir” is a hysterically funny account of Pomfret’s experiences in the church, chock full of eccentric characters and a pull-no-punches attitude that is always more observational than bitter.

“The only way you can be a so-called ‘devout gay Catholic’ is if you learn to laugh and make fun of some of these things that go on,” Pomfret said. “There are a number of groups of devout gay Catholics, which I’ve visited during the course of my book, and there’s always that specter of everlasting shame that sits on their shoulders that always frightens me a little bit. The lapsed Catholics have the opposite problem where they’re, for some reason, still infected with this incredible anger at diminishment from the church even though they allegedly left it behind.”

Born and raised in Boston, where Catholicism is deeply entrenched into the culture of the city, Pomfret credits his parents’ worldly view of their faith for his even-keeled, yet left-of-center views on a fairly right-leaning religion.

“It’s interesting. My mother was Irish, as in from Ireland Irish, and I spent a lot of time over there and while people here from Boston thought that the Catholic Church dominated every facet of life, it was nothing compared to Ireland,” he said. “So I didn’t experience it as a heavy big-brother thing sitting on my shoulder. And I had a pair of parents that, while they were concerned that we go to church and be educated in the church, were also huge public-school fans. They were relatively liberal although my father would probably quibble with that characterization. They’ve become increasingly ecumenical, meaning when they travel they go to church, but it doesn’t have to be Catholic. So I think I escaped the heavier Irish-Catholic pall that used to hang over Boston.”

Now probably would be a good time to mention that, on top of being a gay Catholic, Pomfret is a lawyer, a lector at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston and writes gay-porn books with his boyfriend, Scott Whittier.

“We like to refer to it as ‘erotica’ on the good days,” Pomfret said about the novels.

Um ... OK.

Pomfret said his career as a “romance novelist” hardly ever interferes with his legal career.

“Some of the opponents in some of the cases I’ve been involved in have Googled me and discovered my alter ego, and not a single one has mentioned it,” he said. “They insisted they were all good and fine with it.”

He also added that he has never felt the need to write under a different name to keep the two careers separate.

“I thought about doing a pen name when I first started this, and I chose not to because I didn’t want to appear to be ashamed of it,” he said.

Pomfret has written more “romance” books than he has nonfiction, but he said he enjoyed writing “Since My Last Confession” more than his other works.

“The romance novels are a particular genre, and you have to write them in a particular formula,” he said. “This was so much more free-form and so much more funny and fun that I’d rather write in this genre anytime. In fact, the one time we tried to do a more-funny romance novel, one called ‘Surf and Turf,’ we must have gotten 20 e-mails from longtime fans saying, ‘You’re going in the wrong direction.’”

Conflicting ideals seem to be a constant in Pomfret’s life, especially with regard to his religious beliefs, which have been a source of friction on a few fronts in his life. For example, his boyfriend and co-author of his romance books happens to be “a flaming atheist.”

“He is a born Protestant, but his family, except for possibly his grandmother, are not particularly religious,” Pomfret said of Whittier. “He has never subscribed to any belief in God. He used to be, even more so than now, one of those people who would get in your face about his atheism and his non-belief in God.”

So, that must make for some tense moments around the house, right?

“We do talk about it occasionally,” Pomfret said of their religious differences. “It’s definitely a very hot topic because he, like the lapsed Catholic, is angry at the church and the role it took against gay marriage.”

Pomfret said that despite not seeing eye-to-eye ideologically, Whittier did read “Since My Last Confession.”

“I think he might have just finished it in the last two weeks,” Pomfret said. “He said it’s all untrue except for the part about him being handsome.”

Then there’s the religious side of Pomfret’s life, where the humorous and sometime irreverent nature of his latest book, coupled with the racy gay novels, might put his affiliation with his church in jeopardy. Pomfret said he let his church know about “Confession” before it came out.

“I gave them a heads up, and they’re not thrilled about it, let’s put it that way,” he said. “I have a lot of fondness for the friars who are in the shrine that I go to. I knew this would potentially be a problem for them. The head friar is an imminently capable man, a very funny man and a big personality. I had no doubt that he would be able to handle it. It’s a question of how long they will have me. It’s a question of whether the Cardinal here gets sufficiently vexed that he has to kick me out.”

Pomfret does hold on to the hope that the church will evolve to become more accepting.

“I think it is possible for the church to change for the better, but you’re going to be holding your breath for 500 years for that to happen,” he said.

For now, Pomfret is content to talk to the people at his book signings, which attract an audience vastly different from the people who know him from his erotic works.

“It’s an incredibly mixed bag,” he said. “We’ve had some rollicking discussions about the place of the church and ‘How can you be Catholic if you are gay?’ People are furiously curious about gay priests and what that means. I would say the vast majority of the audience are folks who have never heard of us as fiction writers. They’re by no means all Catholic. It’s been terrifically interesting to see Jewish people. It doesn’t surprise me because we share a legacy of guilt from our mothers. I’ve had Southern Baptists talk about their escape or attempted escape from their religion.”

Pomfret hosts a reading at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 20 at Giovanni’s Room, 345 S. 12th St.

For more information, visit www.scottpomfret.com or call (215) 923-2960.

Larry Nichols can be reached at larry@epgn.com.