Massachusetts St Susanna Catholic church empty Nativity scene and ICE enforcement message controversy

A Massachusetts church is causing controversy with what’s missing from its annual Nativity scene and an accompanying statement.

St. Susanna, a Catholic church in the Boston suburb of Dedham, displayed a Nativity scene outside the church with an empty manger and a sign that says, “ICE was here,” followed by contact information for a group that monitors immigration operations in the state.

Father 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?”

CJ Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, said he was called by a parishioner upset by the display missing the Holy Family — Jesus, Mary and Joseph — and the statement.

“I think it’s very offensive,” Doyle told Fox News Digital. “[Josoma] is politicizing Christmas, he’s exploiting and trivializing the Holy Family, and he’s using his Catholic parish as a platform to promote his left-winged ideology.”

Josoma calls the Nativity scene “religious art,” and shared 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 told Fox News Digital. “So, if this evokes a strong reaction, it’s maybe good to take a look at that.”

Josoma has become known for making waves with his Nativity scenes over the last decade. He and the parish peace and justice group have made statements on mass shootings, global warming and immigration issues in previous years.

Josoma added that with the Nativity scenes, they “try to see what would it be like if Christ was born into the context of the world today” and question, “What would he be facing?”

In 2018, in an apparent reference to the southern border crisis, the parish placed a cage around baby Jesus and walled off the Magi in the Nativity scene, according to reports.

“This is a case of a dissident priest who has a long history of these kinds of ‘crackpot’ publicity stunts aimed at political activism,” Doyle said. “This has nothing to do with the birth of our Savior and everything to do with ventilating [Josoma’s] own political projects.”

Josoma said the displays are inspired by their work with refugees, who they’ve been assisting since 2017. 

While Doyle acknowledges Josoma’s history of mixing politics and religion, he feels the true “enabler” is the Archdiocese of Boston.

“The archdiocese has tolerated this behavior in the past,” Doyle said. “They should tell him to stop, pure and simple.” 

Doyle referenced a recent statement made by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that states, “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”

When asked if the display was “dehumanizing” to law enforcement, Doyle responded, “Of course it is.”

St. Susanna is not alone this Christmas season in making political statements with its Nativity scene.

In Illinois, a church displayed a manger scene that featured baby Jesus’ hands zip-tied together and gas masks on Mary and Joseph. The church said the display “reimagines the nativity as a scene of forced family separation.”

Jillian Westerfield, an associate minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, told Fox News Digital the church felt the imagery resonates with the current time and the story of Jesus’ birth.

“This installation is not subtle because the crisis it addresses is not abstract,” the church explained in a Facebook post. “The Holy Family were refugees … By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.”

Lake Street Church of Evanston is a Baptist church, and, according to Westerfield, it’s the church’s place to “talk about what to us is a moral issue.”

“We’re not coming out in favor or against any political party,” Westerfield said. “No one is doing what we think needs to be done for the people of Illinois and for the American people.”

Josoma told Fox News that the response to the display has been “overwhelmingly supportive,” despite one interaction where he was called a “murderer.”

“The church has a right to speak out,” Josoma said. “And we should be talking about issues. We’re supposed to take care of people.”

The Archdiocese of Boston did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.