There is a long tradition in Christianity of using the Nativity to stir reflection — but this year, a Catholic church in Massachusetts may have pushed that tradition into pure provocation.
St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, a Boston suburb, unveiled a jarring twist on its annual Nativity display: an empty manger and a sign declaring, “ICE was here.” Absent were Jesus, Mary, and Joseph — replaced instead with a politically charged message and a referral to a Massachusetts-based immigration watch group.
The display was quickly condemned by C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, who called it a blatant attempt to “politicize Christmas” and accused parish priest Father Stephen Josoma of exploiting the Holy Family for “left-wing ideology.” Doyle says a concerned parishioner tipped him off, unable to reconcile the sacred scene of Christ’s birth with a sign implying federal immigration officers had come to detain the Holy Family.
Father Josoma, who’s no stranger to controversy, has long used the Nativity as a platform for activism. Over the years, his displays have addressed everything from gun violence to climate change. In 2018, St. Susanna’s Nativity featured baby Jesus in a cage and the Magi walled off — a symbolic commentary on the southern border crisis.
This year, Josoma says, he wanted to depict the “dynamic of what’s going on in the world today,” positioning the Church as a place that should be “welcoming.”
But Doyle isn’t buying the message — or the motives. He dismissed Josoma’s display as a “crackpot publicity stunt” that does nothing to honor the birth of Christ. “This has nothing to do with the birth of our Savior,” he said, “and everything to do with ventilating [Josoma’s] own political projects.” His frustration didn’t stop at Josoma, either. He blamed the Archdiocese of Boston for enabling the priest’s political activism over the years, arguing that Church leadership should finally put a stop to it.
For many critics, the offense wasn’t just the politicization of sacred imagery — it was the perceived attack on law enforcement. The phrase “ICE was here” may mirror graffiti seen in media portrayals of raids, but in a religious context — and tied to the Holy Family — the implication was inflammatory. When asked if the display dehumanized law enforcement, Doyle didn’t hesitate: “Of course it does.”
St. Susanna isn’t alone in turning the Nativity into political theater this Christmas season. In Illinois, Lake Street Church of Evanston took a similarly provocative approach, showing a bound baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph in gas masks, referencing forced family separation. Associate minister Jillian Westerfield defended the display, calling it a necessary “moral” message in response to real-world crises. “The Holy Family were refugees,” she said, noting that the imagery was intentionally blunt because “the crisis… is not abstract.”
Both churches argue they’re reclaiming the “radical edge” of the Nativity — that Jesus, as a child born under threat and in flight from power, stands in solidarity with the marginalized. But critics argue that appropriating sacred imagery to score political points — particularly during a season meant for peace and reverence — distorts the Gospel more than it defends it.