As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, continues to arrest masses of people — a third of whom have no criminal records —a Catholic parish in suburban Boston has refused to look away and has instead doubled down on the church’s social justice mission by displaying a nativity scene that replaces the baby Jesus with a sign that reads, “I.C.E. WAS HERE.”
The nativity scene continued St. Susanna’s tradition of displaying immigration-themed mangers.
That nativity scene at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, also includes a phone number to call if immigration agents are spotted. The image is clear and in your face, forcing those who see it to remember that God’s new life “is out in the margins of life, out of the desert, the places that are not seen by society,” as Rev. Stephen Josoma, St. Susanna’s pastor, preached at a Sunday mass. “Where would those places be in our world today?” he asked. “Overcrowded shelters for the homeless, immigration and deportation centers, refugee camps.”
Though the nativity scene continued St. Susanna’s tradition of displaying immigration-themed mangers — its 2018 scene depicted baby Jesus in a cage — the pushback came quickly this year.
The Archdiocese of Boston called it “divisive political messaging” that minimizes the nativity scene and ignores its “proper sacred purpose.” C.J. Doyle, the head of the Catholic Action League, was even more blunt, telling WBUR, “This is a case of a dissident priest who has a long history of these crackpot political stunts. He’s politicizing Christmas, he’s exploiting the Holy Family, he’s trivializing it and he’s using his position as a pastor to promote his left-wing political ideology.”
Acting ICE director Todd Lyons, a South Boston native who studied under Jesuits at Boston College High School, told Fox News Digital that “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.”
Officials with ICE and its umbrella agency, the Department of Homeland Security, have consistently said there’s been a 1,150% increase in assaults on ICE officers, but this is the administration that tried to make a case of a thrown sandwich into a felony and failed to convict a woman it accused of attacking a federal agent.
This administration has also used pepper spray on clergy praying outside ICE detention centers and on a U.S. representative, and was seen on camera manhandling a U.S. senator. Multiple judges have accused various federal agents of deliberate dishonesty. So, absent clear and convincing evidence, we shouldn’t take the 1,150% figure as truth.
But there is, obviously, an increase in anti-ICE sentiment. And it has nothing to do with a manger scene tucked away in suburban Boston, but with the extreme enforcement tactics, such as those noted above, that continue to threaten civil liberties in this country.
Contrary to what Lyons and Doyle say, St. Susanna is doing what parishes nationwide should be doing this Christmas season. And St. Susanna is not the only church using nativity scenes to make an uncomfortable point. Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, has a scene that depicts Joseph and Mary wearing gas masks and has the baby Jesus swaddled in the kind of reflective blanket that migrants in detention centers are often forced to use to stay warm. Fleeing state violence is central to Jesus’ birth story. His is a refugee story, and a refusal to acknowledge that is a much bigger problem than these provocative scenes.
“Sometimes it feels difficult to believe in social justice, but also be Catholic,” a person who attended mass for the first time in five years this weekend at St. Susanna told The Boston Globe. “It’s hard to find churches these days that reconcile the two.”
Fleeing state violence is central to Jesus’ birth story. His is a refugee story.
Millions of Catholics in this country, including the lapsed Catholic writing this column, have been struggling with this contradiction for years. They are looking for a Church that doesn’t flinch when immigrant families are living in fear. And they want to see archdioceses like Boston’s act with more boldness.
They want to see more churches put into practice last month’s message from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.”
“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” the statement adds. Pope Leo XIV, the church’s first American leader who spent most of his life in Peru, addressed the bishops’ position directly. “The treatment of migrants in the United States is extremely disrespectful,” he said, adding, “Migrants are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.” To be clear, ICE has not been routinely treating migrants with dignity and compassion. That’s why the Archdiocese of Boston’s response to St. Susanna feels so misguided. Instead of condemning a parish that is trying to meet the moment, the archdiocese should be leading the conversation, especially in a region where immigrant — and mostly Latino — Catholics are increasingly the heart of the church and are living in fear. Latinos account for close to 40% of all Catholics in the United States. They are the future of the church. They are still showing up, raising Catholic children and keeping parish life alive. As the percentage of people who identify as Catholics has fallen in Greater Boston, the archdiocese has acknowledged that real energy in parishes comes from immigrant communities, including Latino families who are active in the life of the church. We should be celebrating St. Susanna for calling attention to that reality and standing alongside the people they serve. As one parishioner from Guatemala said about the nativity display, “This means a lot for us. I just came here to say thank you to them.” If the Catholic Church in Boston can’t even look at what ICE is doing because it is too politically divisive, then it’s failing a significant portion of people who still believe in its future.
Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. 
