However, I like the idea of a Kerry-secularist thread. This issue more than any needs to be promoted continuously.
I'll see what I can dig up. Boston College would be a key--besides hosting Kerry's early antiwar ally Fr. Robert Drinan at the Law School, the left-wing element at Boston College was an influence on gay/lesbian theology (Mary Daly) as well as liberation theology in the late 60s and early 70s. A more recent example of the secularizing element at BC would be Thomas Groome (see Eamonn Keane, A Generation Betrayed and What Is VOTF's Real Agenda?). There are probably links there as well to Ted Kennedy and Tip O'Neill, another of Kerry's old political allies ("Today it would be hard to be a member of the Boston College community and not come into contact with some element of the legacy that Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. (Class of 1936) has left to the university.": Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. and Boston College).