By Lewis Finfer
Massachusetts Communities Action Network

There are characters and then there are those who are a "character".

Sure, we know Fr. Kierce was a priest at St. Kevin's in Uphams Corner for 50 years. He did start the Mullen Scholarship Award for Catholic youth. He did direct the Christus Passion Play for 50 years and I remember all the mothers who brought out their babies for a try out to play the Christ child. He did lead thousands to the Holy Land during decades of trips he sponsored.

But, as my friend Peter Power used to say, "Fr. Kierce, from the corner." Peter grew up in St. Kevin's, so he knew Fr. Kierce all his life. When Peter was ready to marry Karen French, of course, the wedding was scheduled at St. Kevin's, with Fr. Kierce to preside.

I remember that day that was well over 30 years ago. Peter invited some of the members of the Dorchester Tenants Action Council, where we worked together, to his wedding. Some were please to be invited and a few more crochety characters complained about who was going to take them, like it was some kind of meeting they were being dragooned into attending. Finally, I told Peter not to worry about such complaints when it was his wedding and we'd get some people rides and others could get there if they really wanted to come.

But, quite a little problem occurred as we were at the church waiting for the ceremony to start. Fr. Kierce was not there and we didn't know where to find him. Now, as the best man, standing to the side of the altar, I was supposed to signal to Peter who was standing in the back of the church when he should begin walking down the aisle.

Trying to emulate a Red Sox third base coach, I gave off various arm waving signals and tried to mouth the words, "Fr. Kierce isn't here." Peter took my gestures to mean that he should start down the aisle and he did as the music played.

Then, when he and Karen were at the altar, I had to tell him that there was no Fr. Kierce around. Peter said, "Fr. Kierce, from the corner."

So you might be wondering, how will this story will end? Well, being from a good Irish Catholic family, Peter had a cousin who was present who was a priest. Fr. Edmond was summoned in whispers and not too long after, he was up on the altar and Peter and Karen were married.

As people were leaving the church, Fr. Kierce did finally show up. No embarrassment was upon him on learning the news. It was more like, "This couple I married earlier today was having such a nice reception. Oh, I thought you'd wait for me."

I told Peter of Fr. Kierce's death last week and he was grateful to be informed as he hadn't heard, and he made it to the funeral last Friday. Peter kidded to me afterwards, "I went down and he got a great Irish send off. He definitely showed up for that one."

Of course, there was the baptism of Peter and Karen's daughter Bridget that Fr. Kierce did make it to. I wasn't sure what the rules of the Catholic Church were in 1975, but I did wonder whether a Jew could be the godfather. I guess if I was willing to renounce Satan and all his works and promise to bring Bridget up as a Catholic if anything were happen to Karen and Peter, then it was good enough for Fr. Kierce.

You didn't know that Fr. Kierce was head of the New England Anti-Redlining Coalition? Well, back in those days of the 1970s, there were a lot of abandoned buildings in parts of Dorchester and a lot of deterioration. The banks stopped making many mortgages and home improvement loans in Dorchester because it was declining, they said. Of course, it was declining because they were not making the loans. This is called redlining, as in drawing a red line around a neighborhood and saying, "no loans made there."

Community organizations that I worked for back then, the Dorchester Community Action Council and later Dorchester Fair Share, worked to reverse this practice. We joined with other communty groups in Boston, in New England, and across the country to successfully organize for passage of a both a federal and state law called the Community Reinvestment Act or CRA in 1978. This law said banks had to make a fair share of loans to all areas they got deposits from; they could not redline or refuse to make mortgage loans in city neighborhoods. This law has resulted in literally billions upon billions in mortgages, home improvement loans, and commercial loans since then to city neighborhoods. Bankers grew to learn that this was not a penalty or forced charity to make loans there, but there was money to be made there too.

At one conference of groups meeting from across New England working on this issue, Fr. Kierce was nominated to be chair and he accepted. Undoubtedly his role as a priest had something to do with this nomination. One of the organizers was named Rick Wise and Fr. Kierce used to always remind people in meetings that "Richard Wise was a wise man."

While some might have thought he didn't know a lot about the issue, he did want to be there with residents who were struggling to preserve their neighborhoods. That couldn't have been said for everyone.

Yes, Fr. Kierce was a character, "from the corner." The streets of Dorchester have sparkled with his presence. He leaves us with a twinkle in his eye as we remember more than a few eye brow raising incidents he was responsible for.