The archbishop of Boston, Richard Henning, is – apparently – annoyed that one of his pastors has disturbed his Advent season with a “politically divisive display.” Or maybe Henning, a relative newcomer to these parts, is just getting some bad advice. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
The controversy stems from a Nativity display set up outside St. Susanna’s church in Dedham, where Father Steve Josoma leads the parish flock. Missing from the crèche is Baby Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph. In their usual spots: a large placard that reads: “ICE WAS HERE.” A smaller sign advises that the Holy Family is safe inside the sanctuary of the church and includes a hotline to a group that monitors ICE activity.
Cries of foul came quickly from those chronically outraged cranks who style themselves as protectors of the Faith, but who these days bow chiefly at the altar of Trump. By Friday of last week, Henning’s office had caved and called for Josoma to remove the display, proclaiming that the church’s “norms prohibit the use of sacred objects for any purpose other than the devotion of God’s people.”
Hmmm. That’s odd, since this year’s crèche is hardly Rev. Josoma’s first foray into social commentary using the Nativity stage. In years past, he has depicted the infant savior caged, a reference to border detentions of migrant children separated from his parents. In 2017, exasperated by the slaughter of American schoolkids in their classrooms, Josoma added signs with the names of 16 mass school shootings recorded in the US in recent years, along with a tally of the casualties.
Now, calling out the murder of schoolkids shouldn’t be considered a political statement, but in this fractured republic, it most certainly is that.
And yet, instead of demands for its removal, what did the church faithful see and hear in December 2017? They could read a story in the Pilot — the official news outlet of the Archdiocese—that highlighted St. Susanna’s statement piece and Josoma, who is portrayed as a quirky, but admirable subject.
Above, St. Sussana’s Nativity Scene in 2017. Image courtesy Rev. Josoma/Facebook
“We try to bring a little bit of light into darkness in all sorts of ways” and “raise people’s awareness that what we do today has a consequence for tomorrow,” Josoma told the paper.
All of which raises the question: Why is the Archdiocese taking issue with Josoma’s creative use of St. Susannah’s crèche this season? It can’t possibly be that the archbishop and his advisors have a soft spot for the current federal administration and the masked storm troopers rounding up Black and Brown people and denying them due process, right?
One would certainly hope not.
Henning must know by now that there are literally scores of Catholic parishes in this region that only managed to survive the storm caused by his predecessors’ outrageous and even criminal acts in decades’ past because immigrant congregants —people from Latin America, the Caribbean, Vietnam—documented and otherwise— filled the pews and collection boxes often left empty by earlier generations, many of whom left the church in disgust.
To this day, this tapestry of peoples from all points of origin is keeping the church stitched together.
Let’s not forget, either, the earliest experiences of Catholics in Boston— immigrants all, most from Ireland— who were regarded as “foreign invaders” and treated very poorly in this town, sometimes with violent and deadly results. For those of us who claim Irish ancestry, it’s one of the many common experiences we share with our brothers and sisters who are now hunted and scorned by a disgraceful president.
Church “norms” be damned, Archbishop Henning. Stand up for your vulnerable, scared congregants and and back up your quirky, but thoughtful and brave pastor. He was right to call out the gun lobby and he’s right to ridicule this wicked, racist administration and the masked henchmen who are preying on our neighbors.
