Massachusetts Catholic Church Uses Nativity to Protest ICE
History is hard.
Notorious leftist St. Susanna Church in Dedham, MA, located 20 miles southwest of Boston, decided to use its Nativity to protest ICE.
Instead of having the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus), the parish has a sign that says “ICE WAS HERE” with a phone number for people to call if they spot ICE agents.
“The Holy Family is safe in The Sanctuary of our Church,” they wrote on it.
Notice the question mark on the “Peace on Earth” sign.
From its website:
You want the real history?
Joseph belonged to the house of King David. He needed to go to Bethlehem to register and be counted for a Roman census ordered by Caesar Augustus.
The LAW required people to go to their city of origin to register for the census and pay taxes.
Mary went with Joseph because he was her betrothed husband and was about to give birth!
That whole part of the world belonged to the Roman Empire.
I am so sick of people twisting the story to fit their narrative. It really ticks me off when Catholic churches do this crap.
Apparently, the priest loves to use his church to get all political, especially at Christmas. Father Stephen Josoma told Boston.com that he likes to use the Nativity to “hold the mirror up to what’s happening, and this year, it seemed to be, my God, it seemed to be right there in front of us.”
Ah, yes, this is the church that placed Jesus in a cage and the Wise Men behind the wall in 2018.
ACTUALLY, if you want to be correct, the Nativity wouldn’t have Jesus until the night of the 24th and the Wise Men on the Epiphany.
After the Magi left, an angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill Jesus.
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Comments
Why let written truth stand in the way of a narrative, you racist, bigoted homophobe? Now scurry away from wickedness before I have to take your life!
Woke Catholics are Episcopal wannabees.
I do not like it.
Whiskeypalians is the term.
“I don’t care what that angel said, Mary. You’re in trouble.”
Old joke to illustrate that the nativity story has always been hackneyed and rebelled against.
This guy is making the mistake of thinking it’s not hackneyed, and is counting on fake offendedness, which somebody is always ready to supply.
I though the Catholic Church prays to ice instead of protesting it.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/pope-leo-mocked-for-blessing-block-of-ice-at-climate-justice-conference-will-it-become-holy-water-101759360087614.html
“It really ticks me off when Catholic churches do this crap.”
If a Catholic church does this crap, are they really Catholic?
Ever hear of “liberation theology”? This type of stuff is nothing new, but as long as they keep the sacraments of the Roman catholic institution and accept the pope as supreme pontiff, they get a pass.
Yes, because the Pope endorses it.
In Massachusetts, being a “Christian” is about virtue signaling your liberal orthodoxy as gospel, as opposed to actually, you know, following the teachings of Christ. I have been to quite a few that talked far more about George Bush than
Jesus Christ.
Case in point: I had a relative that was a minister in the Unitarian church. He was an avowed atheist. I never quite understood how he lived with as much cognitive dissonance as this contradiction. Of course, divorcing your wife and children and running off with the wife of one of the parishioners might have had something to do with it, I dunno.
I have an aunt who attends a Unitarian church and had the misfortune of attending a wedding there. No Christian paraphernalia to be found, but did offer prayers from Tanzanian fisherman and a sermon from a woman who appeared to be a Wiccan or witch of sorts.
Unitarians. Don’t they burn question marks on people’s lawns?
Unitarians are universalists, which basically means they believe everybody (even atheists) is going to go to heaven (whatever they think that’s supposed to mean) sooner or later, regardless.
So with those presuppositions, they wouldn’t see any contradiction of having an atheist minister. At best, the Bible is just a myth/ allegory, and Christian teachings are merely guidelines on living a moral life.
Unitarians are not Universalists, even though they are financially attached, nor do they believe, as Universalists do, that all people have been saved through the sacrifice of Jesus. In fact, quite the opposite. They don’t believe in the Trinity or the divinity of Christ at all.
You had one of the good ones. My neighbor the Unitarian minister (and former Town Selectman) did hard time for importing personal sex slaves from Tibet.
Story says he drove a fancy sports car. Was it a Jag.
A little bit more,
https://www.catholicactionleague.org/
Fools that virtue signal among themselves to assuage guilt that does not actually exist. Sanctimony is their strong suit. It’s too easy to see through, making it even easier for those operating the Pearly Gates to refuse entry.
To Josoma, the idiot:
Satan, your father, loved to twist scripture, as well.
John 10
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold (aka illegal invaders), but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
I am so sick of people twisting the story to fit their narrative. It really ticks me off when Catholic churches do this crap.
You paint with a broad brush. Not every Catholic Church does that, Liberals are in your schools, libraries, Community Boards. I would be more concern about the that planning and zoning board member that is advocating High Density Housing that will destroy your community like in Mn.
“Archdiocese of Boston condemns ‘ICE was here’ sign at Dedham church
The Archdiocese says the parish never received permission to display the sign” That says a lot since one of the biggest sex scandals that was made in to a movie came out of Boston.
There are over 20 K Catholic Churches in the US that does huge outreach to the community. Our local church distributes over 400 meals for Thanksgiving and runs a food bank.
If you are really “ticked off” when Catholic churches do this crap., let the Archdiocese of Boston know. Remind them that this type of bad publicity hurts the church just like their sex scandals.
https://www.bostoncatholic.org/
The church has a right to free speech.
“For the people to rule wisely, they must be free to think and speak without fear of reprisal.” James Madison.
Check out Federalist Papers 10 and 51
I think the biggest mistake is not this manger scene, it is the phrase “Peace on Earth”
That said, you have fallen in the trap to attack the Catholic Church. Same trap that idiots fall for attacking Israeli/Gaza conflict. All 20 K of them! You can do that, but you have just made the same mistake that the wacko St. Susanna Parish did with their political stunt.
Do you really stand by your statement “It really ticks me off when Catholic churches do this crap.” Because you are commending them all with that statement and I take offense. Add a adjective and there is no problem and we have a good post.
Matthew 10:11
Whatever town or village you go into, seek out someone worthy and stay with him until you leave.
12 As you enter his house, salute it,
13 and if the house deserves it, may your peace come upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you.
14 And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet.
Feel better now?
As a matter of fact, ya. I think Steve59 addressed it too. What ticks me off is these liberals have taken over county schools, commissions, boards because the conservatives are too lazy to get on them and do something about it. This is a squirrel in the big picture of things. LI knows this and that is why there is Critcalrace.org and equalprotect.org at the top of the page. Instead of whining about it, get involved in the local stuff. some meet once a month.
No, this is not a squirrel. This IS the big picture. And they’re lying about it.
So what are they lying about?
“Do you really stand by your statement “It really ticks me off when Catholic churches do this crap.” Because you are commending them all with that statement and I take offense. Add a adjective and there is no problem and we have a good post. ”
“Do you really stand by your statement “It really ticks me off when all Catholic churches do this crap.” Because you are commending them all with that statement and I take offense. Add a adjective and there is no problem and we have a good post. ”
See the difference?
LOL, yea, I guess I should have be more specific about which adjective.
This doesn’t surprise me. The Holy Mother Church has NGOs the purpose of which is to flood the country with third worlders. Same with the Lutherans.
Same with SOME Lutherans. We who actually hold to Scripture don’t fund this stuff. You want those apostate Lutherans down the street with the sparkle creed crap.
The five richest Muslim countries have not taken in refugees from other Muslim countries, citing the risk of terrorism.
The most solid Christmas message I know is a poem by Martin Luther
Er ist auf Erden kommen arm
Dass er unser sich erbarm
Uns in dem Himmel mache reich
Und seinen lieben Engeln gleich
in the Christmas Oratorio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zgbzz96BM
about the only Christian message around.
Not bad:
He came to earth in poverty,
That he might have mercy on us,
Make us rich in heaven,
And like his beloved angels.
I like:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Joseph belonged to the house of King David. He needed to go to Bethlehem to register and be counted for a Roman census ordered by Caesar Augustus.
The LAW required people to go to their city of origin to register for the census and pay taxes.
This is historically inaccurate. There is no historical evidence of a Roman census at the time, and it’s completely untrue that people were required to their places of origin when a census was undertaken. The Bible tells stories, it is not a “history” in any modern sense (it is generally historical fiction, telling stories that include historical facts, like a modern movie “based on a true story” that gets many facts wrong for story-telling purposes) and, without corroboration, does not constitute “history” on its own. As everyone knows, various researchers are always looking for evidence to support the stories in the Bible. This is one story for which there is no support.
That being said (and having alienated many of the readers here), the manger scene is an example of why the Left can’t meme. Memes, in order to be effective, must contain at least a grain of truth. Jesus was not illegally in Bethlehem and he was not an “alien” in the region. There’s no reason why ICE agents would have arrested him and “disappeared” him from his crib. So the church’s scene fails to make any cogent statement.
Not true according to some sources. Lots of historians have backed it up as authentic.
Sorry but you’re spouting Christophobic propaganda.
The Bible does not tell stories, with the exception of the likes of Jesus’ parables, and even those were likely heavily based on reality.
Yes there are plenty of researchers looking to debunk the Bible, they’ve yet to convince anyone other than those who already insist on disbelieving the Bible.
There actually was a census in 6 AD, possibly one in 2 BC, and another 8 BC. Most people say Jesus was born roughly 6-4 BC rather than ‘0 AD’. And the much disputed requirement for Joseph and Mary’s return to Bethlehem may have been a local (Judean) requirement rather than a Roman world one. It is consistent with a papyrus record requiring all in Egypt to return to their districts for the approaching (104 AD?) census.
Given Bethlehem is Arab territory now, perhaps ‘Jesus was an illegal alien’ in the eyes of the Left is because He was a Jew born on ‘Arab soil’? Does the Left actually know what the historical boundaries actually were?
I’m rather well-read on the subject of the New Testament and Christology. Most of your facts are just plain wrong. For the sake of simplicity and time, I asked Google AI “What evidence exists for a Roman census in Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth?” Here’s the reply:
Evidence for a census at Jesus’ birth is debated; while Luke describes a worldwide enrollment under Augustus requiring Joseph to go to Bethlehem, historians note this conflicts with Quirinius’ later census (AD 6) and no direct Roman records confirm this specific event, leading some scholars to suggest Luke used it as a literary device, though others propose a loyalty oath during Herod’s reign or a dual governorship for Quirinius as potential explanations for Luke’s account.
Arguments Supporting the Census:
Roman Practice: Roman censuses were common for administration and taxation, making a registration plausible.
Augustan Enrollment: Augustus did order a general enrollment around 8 BC for statistics, possibly tied to an oath of loyalty, which could be related.
Tribal Structure: A registration using tribal lines, like Joseph returning to his ancestral town (Bethlehem), aligns with Jewish social structures, notes Catholic Answers.
Luke’s Detail: Luke’s specific mention of Quirinius (though dated later) and “all the world” suggests detailed knowledge, not a simple fabrication.
Challenges & Counterarguments:
Quirinius Anomaly: The main issue is Quirinius was governor of Syria years after Herod the Great (when Jesus was born) and his census (AD 6) caused a revolt, unlike Luke’s peaceful enrollment.
No Direct Record: There’s no independent Roman record of a census matching Luke’s description at that specific time.
“Hometown” Requirement: Critics question if Romans required returning to ancestral homes for census purposes.
Proposed Solutions:
Two Enrollments: Luke described the first enrollment of a dual system, distinct from Quirinius’ later one.
Quirinius’ Dual Role: He might have governed Syria twice, once earlier, or held another relevant office, say Bible Archaeology Report.
Herodian Loyalty Oath: Some suggest Luke refers to a Herod-ordered oath of loyalty to Caesar (around 8-6 BC) that utilized tribal registration, fitting the Bethlehem journey, say Christianity Stack Exchange and Catholic Answers.
In essence, while a specific, detailed census matching Luke’s account lacks direct external confirmation, historians and theologians explore various scenarios, including Herod’s actions or different interpretations of Roman administration, to reconcile Luke’s narrative with historical context.
*****
Note the counter-evidence (in favor of a census) requires the concoction of stories that are different from that told in the NT. This would make Luke wrong. Luke isn’t wrong. He was trying to tell a compelling story to an audience that didn’t know “history” or “news” the way we understand it. They didn’t demand facts, they wanted to story well-told. Adding drama, conflict, danger, and miracles now and then was the way to tell a satisfying story about any historical event. So, such stories were told about Jesus. It’s a testament (if you’ll forgive the pun) to the story-telling of the Gospel writers that we’re still talking about Jesus 2,000 years later.
It’s not “Christophobic” to believe that Jesus was real, a wise man, and completely human. Nor is it Christophobic to believe that he died on the cross while possibly believing in things that simply were untrue. He may have been an extraordinary man. It’s not surprising that tall tales grew up around him in an age of superstition and great ignorance about the natural world. (I’ve actually been a few places myself after which I’ve met others who had been there, and to find from them that people there tell fantastic stories about me, none of which are true. So I know that it doesn’t take much to make an impression sufficient to cause people to invent tall tales about someone. I’m really not that extraordinary.)
There’s no such year as “0 AD”. The year before 1 AD is 1 BC.
He would be more accurate to ram a pole up his bum attached to a flag reading, “strange men were here.”
A little girl draws a picture of an airplane for a Sunday School assignment for the “Flight into Egypt.” When asked about the fourth person in the cockpit, she says, “That’s Pontius, the Pilot”.
Time for a little good old-fashioned Persecution.
Men experience it every day. It’s called family court.
They seem to have a thing for communist popes these days.
Hypocritical at that. How many homeless are the Vatican housing?
Clearly the church-state divide is alive and well on the Left. (/sarc!)
Oh, no! The policies I support got poor baby Jesus deported! I’m such a terrible person.
Oh, wait, no, it was actually fully grown Jesus the illegal alien from Venezuela who has warrants for both assault and burglary. Seems I was right all along.