Gov. Henry Gardner, who was in office from 1855 to 1858, passed what some say was an anti-Catholic amendment to the Massachusetts constitution that barred the state from using public money to fund schools run by "any religious sect."

That amendment was superseded by another one in 1917 that bans the use of public funds going to primary or secondary schools, hospitals, or other "charitable or religious undertaking" that is not publicly owned or under the control of "public officers or public agents authorized by the Commonwealth or federal authority or both."

The Pioneer Institute, a privately funded and independent research organization, is calling for those amendments to be repealed, and the portrait of Gov. Gardner to be moved.

The institute held a short forum on Aug. 1 at the State House to advocate for these changes that headlined former Ambassador to the Vatican and Boston Mayor Ray Flynn.

"There is no issue more central to the American Dream than giving poor, working-class and minority kids a chance to get a good education," said Flynn.

"I am horrified not only that we have bigoted nativist amendments in our state constitution that block greater school choice, but that Gov. Henry Gardner's picture hangs outside the chamber where I once served," he said.

Several other prominent members of the community also spoke at the event, including Gerard Robinson, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise; Con Chapman, a partner at Burns and Levinson in Boston; former New Hampshire state Rep. Jason Bedrick and Grace Cotter Regan, the head of school at St. Mary's in Lynn.