Archdiocese, Dorchester residents rebuke city councilor’s anti-Protestant remark

Nobody would ever confuse the Boston City Council with the U.S. Senate. It's not that incivility never erupts on the Senate floor, but when it does, it's the exception — not the rule.

These days, acrimony seems to be just another tool in the Boston City Council's rhetorical work bag. Words like “predator,” “racist” and an f-bomb have all been spoken on the council floor during recent meetings.

But Wednesday, during debate over plans to establish new city voting districts, Dorchester Councilor Frank Baker plumbed political depths not visited in recent memory when he suggested that the new voting maps were part of an anti-Catholic conspiracy orchestrated by redistricting chair Liz Breadon of Brighton. Breadon, a Protestant, was born 63 years ago in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland.

“I got a call from a longtime friend [Wednesday] morning, happens to be a Catholic priest. ... He said that the clergy in Boston, they’re all talking about this process right here and they’re viewing this exercise as an all-out assault on Catholic life in Boston,” Baker said. “And it’s not lost on them that the person that’s leading the charge is a Protestant from Fermanagh.”

Baker was directed to apologize on the council floor after his comments Wednesday. On Thursday, he doubled down, saying his remarks reflected what he has heard from Catholic constituents “for months.”

“The redistricting process in Boston has been conducted unlawfully to intentionally harm [Catholic voters] for who they are,” Baker said in a written statement, adding allegations that the redistricting process violated state open meeting law and the federal Voting Rights Act. “I won’t be silent on it.”

But local Catholic leaders have spoken out against his anti-Protestant remark. An official from the Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement rejecting Baker’s comment, while also recommending a longer redistricting process.

“Clearly the City of Boston redistricting debate is complicated as officials seek to meet this post-census requirement. That said, we do not believe the process is an assault on Catholic life,” said Terrence Donilon, secretary of communications and public affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston. “Given the significant issues raised and the debate that has ensued, perhaps more time is required for all parties to deliberate on this important matter so that all districts within the city have fair representation.”

GBH News obtained a copy of a letter from Jack Ahern, pastor at St. Gregory’s Parish in Dorchester’s Lower Mills section, which charges that the redistricting process seems discriminatory, but the priest clarified his comments when reached by phone Thursday.

“I was moreso trying to keep the district united under one councilor,” he said of his letter, which contains no references to Breadon’s religion. “I was taken aback by Baker’s comments. I didn’t even know she was Protestant.”

The City Council voted 9-4 to approve the map. The decision to enact or reject it, which would therefore extend the redistricting process, now rests with Mayor Michelle Wu.

Baker has resisted the reshaping of his Dorchester-based district. His remarks, political observers said, touched a vein that should stay in the past.

Bill Forry, editor of the Dorchester Reporter, called Baker’s comments a “terrible blunder” that have been roundly rejected, even in the neighborhoods he represents.

“We’ve heard outrage from people who feel that this is an absolute misrepresentation of how people feel. ... Folks who do have concerns about this final redistricting map that the council passed have other arguments,” Forry told GBH News. “At no point did anybody raise objections about Councilor’s Breadon’s heritage, or her place of origin or her religion. It simply has no place in the political dialogue here in the city.”

Forry added: “It shows a grave ignorance on his part about Irish America and about the Irish American role in helping to resolve the Irish 'Troubles' in the North.”

History does not favor Baker’s conspiracy theory of the current round of Boston redistricting.

Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, Boston’s Protestant community did discriminate against Irish Catholics. But by 1949, when reform-minded City Clerk John B. Hynes defeated the colorful but worn-out populist crook James Michael Curley for mayor, the us-against-them Protestant-Catholic dynamic was largely a thing of the past — if for no other reason that the Irish were in a majority and were firmly in charge of municipal government.

Catholics were also taking their places heading up blue-collar unions and taking on jobs in white-collar professions.

Baker has been the beneficiary of that dominance in recent years, but the city is changing again. Boston is now being stewarded by a City Council that is majority people of color, and the first female and first Asian American mayor.

Bill Walczak, a longtime Dorchester resident and participant in the Irish peace process that helped quell the country’s ethnic conflict, said invoking it is counter to what many survivors would want.

“What I found in my time in Northern Ireland was most people, overwhelmingly ... were interested in making sure that the ' Troubles' were over. So, the notion of dragging this out of the past and trying to make this into a religious conflict, let alone in Dorchester, seems absurd,” he said. “We should have discussions based on Boston’s needs rather than the past in Northern Ireland.”

Don Walsh is a member of the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association in Baker’s home neighborhood. Reached by phone Thursday, Walsh said while Baker’s comments were likely part of an effort to preserve certain parts of his district, they made little sense given that the area has shifted away from the Irish Catholic stronghold it once was.

“First of all, I’m not sure what ‘Catholic life’ means anymore because my parish [St. Williams] is literally gone,” said Walsh. “What I grew up with — going to Catholic school, playing CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] sports — everybody in my neighborhood was Catholic and it was absolutely a very strong Irish Catholic neighborhood.

“My world is gone,” he continued. “This is by no means an Irish Catholic neighborhood anymore.”

Dorchester, Boston’s largest and most diverse neighborhood, contains about 122,000 residents according to the 2020 U.S. Census — though Boston is challenging the citywide count as an undercount. At last check, the neighborhood is about 22% white, 35% Black, 20% Hispanic, 11% Asian or Pacific Islander and 11% other races, according to data collected by the Boston Planning and Development Agency.

Given that diversity, Walsh said, any discussion should focus on the common issues residents would like politicians and officials to solve.

“Let’s talk about what’s going to happen tomorrow, not what would’ve happened yesterday,” said Walsh, pointing to an onslaught of development across the city. “That's tomorrow. It's not today, but it’s already started, and I would like our focus not to be on silly religious whatevers. I like to be focused on that.”

Mark Herz contributed to this story.