During the fight to legalize gay marriage in Massachusetts, I
set out on a Quixotic quest: to stalk Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the
Archdiocese of Boston, with the vague idea that I might convert him from
foe to friend if only he would agree to speak to me. Confession tells the story of the crazy Catholic kookery I found -- and whatever germs of wisdom and humor I derived from it.
"A lighthearted memoir . . . Pomfret elucidates the eventual resolution of his spiritual crises with considerable integrity and manages to present sympathetic portraits of clergy, biting satires of church practices, and a nuanced rendering of a church and congregation considering its role in a changing world. . . . Unfailingly lively."
--Publishers' Weekly (May 5, 2008).
Picture Michael Moore trying to track down Roger Smith in Roger and Me. Except with Cardinal Sean playing the part of Roger and me playing Michael Moore. It was truly a journey from gay porn to the pearly gates. Or to purgatory. Or perdition. Only time will tell. Review copy info here.
"One day historians will have a go at understanding how gay Catholics stood up for the deepest truths of the Catholic faith against a hierarchy who were opportunistically wedded to a reactionary modern ideology, and how they eventually wore the hierarchy back into belonging to the Church. If those historians don't pick up on the extraordinary mixture of sheer love, tender-heartedness, cussedness and hilarity which Since My Last Confession delivers in spades, then they will have quite failed to 'get it.'"
Meet some of the crazy characters I met along the way: the Franciscan friars who came to me for news about the local gay dance club; Jezebel, the uber-Catholic sister-in-law; Father Bear Daddy the gay priest with the hot gay.com account; Gram my Catholic-loathing 83-year-old grandmother-in-law; the inflatable "Super Colon" at the Saint Francis Street Fair; my fanatically atheistic boyfriend; and all the loose-boweled members of the gay-lesbian spirituality group who offered to teach me a thing or two about humiliation.
"Hovering somewhere between a heartbreaking cry of pain and a delicious howl of laughter Scott Pomfret’s 'Since My Last Confession' is a complete delight. Trying to make sense of the insane, hypocritical, and murderously ironic stances the Catholic Church takes – often articulated by gay, sexually active, priests – this not-quite apostate catholic does his best to claim and articulate a reasonable, rational, and truly religious relationship to the church. In short: Pomfret isn’t a 'recovering Catholic' – it’s the benighted men who have so sadly mismanaged the Roman Catholic church who are going to have to recover from this funny, heartfelt, and insightful memoir."
-- Michael A. Bronski, Professor, Dartmouth College
Author of "Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps"
Confession addresses all the important topics for a modern gay Catholic: "How to Recognize a Gay Catholic When You See One," "How to Get Excommunicated in Seven Easy Steps," "A Modern Catholic Catechism," "Why My Raging Atheist Boyfriend Doesn't Mind That I Have Faith" and "Why I Can't Leave These Pinheaded Catholic Patriarchs Alone." Slightly sacrilegious fun for all ages (well, all ages over 18)!
"Scott Pomfret is the patron saint of devilish wit. With unabashed introspection that borders on the sacrilegious, Since My Last Confession artfully demonstrates a heartfelt faith in God and humanity that, frankly, the world could use a lot more of. "
-- Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Author of "I Am Not Myself These Days"
