This story has been floating around for a few days. NCR has the latest:
Calling it a “politically divisive display,” the Boston Archdiocese has asked a local suburban parish to remove a Nativity scene that substitutes images of the Holy Family with a sign criticizing the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
“ICE was here,” reads the large sign that accompanies an empty manger outside St. Susanna Church in Dedham, Massachusetts, referring to immigration raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The Holy Family is safe in The Sanctuary of our Church,” the sign adds. “If you see ICE, please call LUCE,” referring to an immigrant assistance network in Massachusetts.
Reported last week by local and national media, the Nativity scene at St. Susanna’s prompted strong online reactions. ICE acting director Tod Lyons told Fox News Digital that the scene was “abhorrent” and that it added to a “dangerous narrative” that he said has resulted in a 1,150% increase in assaults on ICE officers.
Hundreds of people from across the country also flooded the parish Facebook group page with angry comments while parishioners defended the provocative manger display.
“It sure seems like it’s hard to have a conversation with people,” Fr. Stephen Josoma, the pastor of St. Susanna Church, told National Catholic Reporter. Josoma said the parish office received numerous calls where people started cursing as soon as he picked up the phone.
“It’s not a conversation,” Josoma said. “You say ‘Have a nice day’ and hang up. You can’t do much more than that.”
Josoma spoke with NCR a day before a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese said that the parish manger scene should be removed and the manger restored “to its proper sacred purpose.”
“The people of God have the right to expect that, when they come to church, they will encounter genuine opportunities for prayer and Catholic worship — not divisive political messaging,” Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said in response to NCR’s inquiry.
Donilon said in an email that the Catholic Church’s canonical norms “prohibit the use of sacred objects for any purpose other than the devotion of God’s people,” adding that those objects include images of the Christ Child, which Donilon said “are to be used solely to foster faith and devotion.”
Donilon added that St. Susanna Church “neither requested nor received permission” from the archdiocese to “depart from this canonical norm or to place a politically divisive display outside the church.”
In a prepared statement provided Dec. 8 to NCR, Josoma and members of St. Susanna’s parish council said they were waiting for “an opportunity of dialogue and clarity” with Boston Archbishop Richard Henning before reaching any final decisions regarding the Nativity scene.
