NOTES BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS
FOLLOWING CONDEMNATION BY CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE, BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE ORDERS REMOVAL OF ANTI-ICE SIGN IN PARISH CRECHE
Less than four days after a provocative political sign in a parish creche was condemned on Boston television by the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, the Archdiocese of Boston has denounced the sign and ordered it removed from the church’s Nativity scene.
Reverend Stephen Josoma, the Pastor of Saint Susanna Parish in Dedham, had removed the figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph from the Nativity scene in front of his church, and replaced them with a sign which read: ‘ICE was here,’ implying that the Holy Family, if present today, would have been arrested by ICE.
Speaking on Boston 25, on Monday afternoon, December 1st, League Executive Director C. J. Doyle called the sign a “crackpot publicity stunt” in which Josoma was “politicizing Christmas, exploiting the Holy Family and using his position as a parish priest to promote his left-wing political ideology.”
Doyle, who went on to do another half dozen interviews, said that the sign was “inappropriate, sacrilegious, divisive and disrespectful.”
News reporting on the controversy, quickly, went viral, with nation-wide coverage extending beyond our borders into Canada and the UK.
On Friday morning, December 5th, the Archdiocese of Boston, after years of silence about Father Josoma using Nativity scenes to convey political messages, finally spoke out.
Archdiocesan Communications Director Terrence Donilon issued a public statement, which said:
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. The Church’s norms prohibit the use of sacred objects for any purpose other than the devotion of God’s people. This includes images of the Christ Child in the manger, which are to be used solely to foster faith and devotion.
The statement concluded with a clear instruction: The display should be removed, and the manger restored to its proper sacred purpose.
The Catholic Action League called the decision by the Archdiocese “a victory for sanity in the Catholic Church.”
League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comments:
“The Archdiocese should be commended for doing the right thing.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley tolerated Father Josoma’s political activism for two decades. Now, just thirteen months into the episcopate of Archbishop Richard Henning, Father Josoma has been told, publicly, to shut down one of his political stunts.
This response may well be a hopeful sign, reflecting the change in the leadership of the Archdiocese of Boston.
It would also seem to reflect widespread public outrage over the continued juvenile antics of this publicity seeking, dissident priest.
Whatever the cause, the faithful Catholics of Dedham can now look forward to a traditional Nativity scene, reminding them, in joyous expectation, of the birth of Our Savior.”
