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ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, as well as the Archdiocese of Boston, are calling for the removal of an “ICE was here” sign that was placed at a Nativity scene at a Massachusetts church.
“The actions of the activist reverend, Stephen Josoma, are absolutely abhorrent and add to a dangerous narrative responsible for a more than 1,150% increase in assaults on ICE officers,” Lyons told Fox News Digital in a statement.
A Nativity scene at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, a suburb of Boston, shows an empty manger with a sign reading “ICE was here,” along with contact information for a group that monitors immigration enforcement in Massachusetts.
Rev. Stephen Josoma, the pastor at St. Susanna, said the church’s peace and justice group organizes a display annually. Josoma told Fox News that they, “try to see what would it be like if Christ was born into the context of the world today, what would he be facing?”
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Josoma calls the Nativity scene “religious art,” and shared with Fox News Digital that it’s intended to “evoke emotions in people.”
“It’s supposed to affect people deeply, it’s supposed to move people, it’s supposed to change people,” Josoma said. “So, if this evokes a strong reaction, it’s maybe good to take a look at that.”
Lyons added that Josoma “has become infamous for using his pulpit to advance his activist agenda and has now caught the attention of the Archdiocese of Boston, which has publicly condemned his most recent political stunt. On behalf of ICE and our many law enforcement professionals in Massachusetts — many of whom are practicing Catholics and first-generation Americans — I applaud the Catholic Church and the Archdiocese for taking a stand against such a dangerous and extremist narrative.”
The Archdiocese’s Secretary for Communications and Public Affairs, Terrence Donilon, told Fox News Digital in a statement that the sign was “divisive political messaging,” and called for its removal.
“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,” he wrote.
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The statement further said that the church’s norms “prohibit” using sacred objects for any other purpose than, “the devotion of God’s people.”
“St. Susanna Parish neither requested nor received permission from the Archdiocese to depart from this canonical norm or to place a politically divisive display outside the church,” wrote Donilon. “The display should be removed, and the manger restored to its proper sacred purpose.”
Josoma has used controversial Nativity scenes in the past. He has used them to send messages about gun control, climate change, and also reportedly had Baby Jesus placed in a cage separated from his parents during Trump’s first presidency in 2018.
Other churches across the country have also used Nativity scenes to criticize ICE and highlight immigration issues.
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In Illinois, a church showed a manger scene that depicted baby Jesus’ hands zip-tied together and gas masks on Joseph and Mary.
The church, Lake Street Church of Evanston, said the scene “reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation, drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family’s refugee experience and contemporary immigration detention practices.”
Fox News Digital’s Olivia Palombo contributed to this report.
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