Scott Pomfret serves as a lector at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston. He also writes gay porn. His boyfriend is a flaming atheist, and his boyfriend's Protestant grandmother counts Catholicism a sin worse than sodomy. From Pentecost to Pride, from the books of the Bible to the articles of The Advocate, Pomfret's wry, hysterically funny memoir maps with matchless humor the full spectrum of the gay Catholic experience. Listen in as Pomfret learns a thing or two about love and compassion from Father Bear Daddy, a priest with a hot Gay.com profile, and the Three Hale Marys, and join him as he sets out on a brave quest to convince his arch–nemesis, Cardinal O'Malley, to invite him to serve at a weekly mass.
Pomfret, Scott. “Since My Last Confession:
A Gay Catholic Memoir”, Arcade Books, 2008.
The Humor of Being Gay and Catholic
Amos Lassen
I have read and reviewed other books by Scott Pomfret but as one of the Scotts of Scott and Scott, Usually the books I read by the two Scotts were erotic sizzlers so I was quite surprised when I got “Since My Last Confession” as this is not the kind of book that I expected him to write. The same humor of the other books is there and there is some of the playful eroticism that I have grown to love in the other books. Yet even with the humor this book deals with the very serious issue of sexuality and organized religion.
So let’s meet Scott Pomfret. He is a lector at Saint Anthony Shrine and he also writes (for lack of better words) gay porn. He has a boyfriend whose name is also Scott who is a total non-believer, an atheist (Sacre Bleu). The boyfriend’s grandmother considers Catholicism to be a crime worse than sodomy.
Pomfret pokes fun at the entire Catholic experience and he says so with great humor and possible excommunication from Mother Church. The cast of characters in this novel fills three and one-half pages and their names are wonderful—Father Bear-Daddy, Father McSlutty, three females with the initials of “MF” and who all share the first name of Mary, Thelma and Louise, Ward and June, to name a few.
Before I continue, let me give a quote from the author’s note: “This is not an attack on the Church. It’s an invitation to laugh”. And laugh you will—in fact, I am still laughing as I type this.
However there is a great deal of pain here. As Pomfret attempts to make sense of the way the Church regards the GLBT community, he sees a humor in the pain it has caused. He points out of the irony of the church in that many issues of anti-gay policy are mouthed by sexually active gay priests. Pomfret really tries to give a religious relationship to the church and in this lies the humor of the book. By using satire, he considers the role of the church in modern life.
The book looks at all of the important topics with which a gay Catholic is faced—excommunication (and how to achieve it), Catechism (and its many uses), faith (and its uses and merits), the role of priests (in and out of the closet). Does this sound sacrilegious? It probably is but how would I know? I don’t have these problems—I’m Jewish and I have headaches of my own.
It is the wit, the humor and the truth beneath it that makes “Since My Last Confession” such a good read, if you can stop laughing long enough to turn the pages.
One reviewer has dubbed Scott Pomfret as the “patron saint of devilish wit” and I have to agree. This is quite a book and quite a read.
Wickedly Funny, Yet Touching, Too
Salvatore Sapienza, author of Seventy Times Seven: A Novel wrote on 08/11/2008:
Okay, the topic sounds like a heavy one - a gay man struggling to find his place in an increasingly homophobic Catholic Church - but Pomfret's witty writing had me in stitches. For confidentiality, the author has changed many of the names of parish priests and church members, giving them hysterical names like Father McSlutty and Father Daddy-Bear, and he offers us funny, yet handy cut-out guides along the way with titles like "How to Come Out to Hardcore, Bead-counting Catholics" and "Brokeback Lent."
That said, this memoir also deeply touched my heart and reaffirmed my own faith. Like many, I was surprised to learn that Pomfret - author of gay erotica books like "Hot Sauce" - is a devout Catholic and active lector and lay minister at his Boston parish. Where one might expect this to be an angry, Catholic-bashing book, Pomfret's memoir is actually a very loving one, as he attempts to accept the Church he loves, broken as she may be. "So why do I cling to a broken, dying Church and its broken prelate?" he writes. "Brokeness is an opportunity for the Spirit to enter."
I, too, have struggled to support and defend the Church in which I grew up. Many of us have left, but Pomfret's memoir reaffirms that we are all a part of the Church, and that she is incomplete without us. One gay father of three tells Pomfret, "I feel a political responsibility not to leave and not to be budged by people who don't want me there. It's the Rosa Parks thing. It's my church, too, as much as theirs."
So, while I howled with laughter throughout my reading of this wickedly-funny book, I, more importantly, have come away even more deeply committed to my own faith and in my resolve to help heal the Church from within. I have Pomfret - a kindred spirit - and his touching memoir to thank for that.
Wickedly Funny, Yet Touching, Too
