Gay memoir too racy for Catholic shrine

BOSTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A Roman Catholic shrine in Boston has stripped an openly gay man of leadership positions following the publication of a memoir.

Scott Pomfret, a lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, was a lector at St. Anthony Shrine, a Eucharistic minister and a trainer of other lay ministers. He continued to carry out those responsibilities even though the Franciscan friars at the shrine knew he was in a long-term same-sex relationship, The Boston Globe reported.

But the publication of "Since My Last Confession" moved the friars to take action.

Pomfret, who called himself "a happy porn-writing Sodomite," suggested that some local priests are active homosexuals and made fun of Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston.

"There were people who felt it was incompatible for someone to stand up publicly and say, 'I'm a pornographer, and I'm a lector at St. Anthony Shrine,'" said the Rev. David Convertino, the shrine's executive director. "There's a public stance that he's taking, and it seems that most of this is to sell the book."