Gay author dismissed from duties at St. Anthony Shrine

This summer Scott Pomfret released a memoir, Since My Last Confession, about reconciling his gay and Catholic identities as a parishioner at Boston's St. Anthony Shrine. Last week the friars at the shrine told him that he was no longer welcome to serve as a lector or in any of his other volunteer capacities with the church.

Pomfret believes his dismissal was motivated at least in part by his book's depiction of St. Anthony as an LGBT-friendly church. But Fr. David Convertino, the shrine's executive director, said the decision stemmed from Pomfret's description of himself on the book's back cover and in promotional materials as a lector at the shrine "who also writes gay porn."

Pomfret, along with his partner, Scott Whittier, writes the sexually explicit "Romentics" gay romance novels. Pomfret said he had served as a lector and Eucharistic minister at the shrine since 2000, and he had also volunteered as an attorney for the shrine's now-defunct legal clinic, trained new lectors and Eucharistic ministers, and served on other committees.

Convertino said that Pomfret's description of himself in his publicity efforts as both a lector at the shrine and a pornographer was inappropriate.
"Scott pretty much excluded himself from the ministries by promoting himself as a pornographer and as a lector at the Shrine. ... He's promoting himself as those two things. My sense is that's to sell the book," said Convertino.

Pomfret's work as a gay romance novel writer was well known, and he and Whittier have been the subject of several media profiles about the books. His memoir marks the first time he has been publicly linked to his role at St. Anthony's. He also works as an attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pomfret said he believes his sexually explicit writing was one factor in his dismissal. But he also believes that the friars were upset about how he portrayed the shrine. He was told about his removal from his lector position at a Sept. 19 meeting with a friar who he declined to name.

"He characterized the book itself as an expose. ... I think he meant that instead of being a subtly welcoming place for gays and lesbians that I put out there that [St. Anthony] is effusively embracing of us, and I think they regard that as a lighting rod for criticism," said Pomfret.

St. Anthony Shrine has long been known as one of the most LGBT-friendly Catholic churches in Boston. Most recently it held a brunch and screening of the film For the Bible Tells Me So, an acclaimed documentary about religious families who embrace their LGBT members, as part of this summer's Boston Pride festivities.

In a blog post following his dismissal (Pomfret blogs at sincemylastconfessionnews.blogspot.com), the author said he was also told that the church was disbanding its LGBT spirituality group, of which Pomfret was one of the leaders. After meeting with one of the friars on Sept. 24 he no longer believes that is the case. He said he believes the friars had been contemplating making changes to the structure of the group before his own dismissal.

"I came out convinced that they had given some thought to changing the format of the group before my book was published, and I knew that anyhow and he just confirmed that was the case," said Pomfret. "I'm convinced the shrine has some commitment to some form of GLBT ministry outreach going forward. I think they're floundering around as to what it's going to look like, and I think it's fair to say they think my book complicated matters by putting the spotlight on them."

Convertino said the group remains very much alive, but the shrine is changing the format from a monthly meeting to a series of seasonal retreats, forums and other events. He said he hoped the event-oriented format would boost the attendance of the group, which he said had been low. Convertino said the shrine remains committed to serving as a welcoming place for LGBT Catholics.

"Since I've been here we've been very welcoming, and we still are welcoming ... In terms of the gay and lesbian community it's the same as it always has been," said Convertino. "The group transformation has nothing to do with Scott. The group transformation was already in the works."