A member of President Donald Trump’s Catholic Advisory Council during his 2016 presidential campaign is joining the choir of those speaking out against a controversial sign placed at the Nativity scene of a Dedham church that reads “ICE was here.”
Patrick Walsh, of Quincy, was one of 34 people selected by Trump to join the group, which provided him with advisory support related to issues and policies affecting Catholics and people of other religions.
“It should be removed immediately. They’re trying to politicize something when it’s Christmas season and Christ is supposed to be our savior. This church shouldn’t be playing politics with Advent,” Walsh told the Herald.
“St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that people should stay within their own home country to make their country a better place, and Trump actually said something similar to that the other day during a press conference he had at the White House during a cabinet meeting,” Walsh continued. “That is the traditional Catholic position. And the Pope was recently in Turkey and he made a similar statement.”
Walsh is referring to Monday’s cabinet meeting, where Trump spoke on numerous issues from the economy to the targeting of drug boats by the Pentagon and immigration.
“These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say ‘Let’s go. Come on, let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain. And from where they came from, they got nothing,” Trump said, referring at first to alleged fraud committed by Somali immigrants in Minnesota before expanding to illegal immigrants from elsewhere in other states. “We don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
The sign at St. Susanna Parish was the idea of Reverend Stephen Josoma, who has a history of political activism in the form of demonstrations and signs like the one at the display. Underneath the “ICE was here” message, the sign goes on to read “The Holy Family is safe in our Church… If you see ICE please call LUCE at 617-370-5023.”
Walsh went on to criticize Josoma and St. Susanna’s Parish specifically, going on to say that today’s Democratic Party may not have let Jesus Christ be born at all.
“The leftist priest at the church responsible for the kidnapping of the baby Jesus from the manger should realize that it is extremely improbable in our humane society that the Democratic Party would have permitted Jesus to be born at all. Mary’s pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion,” said Walsh.
“Her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger. Thus our generation, needing a Savior more, perhaps, than any that has ever existed, would be too humane to allow one to be born,” he said.
Walsh’s criticism of the parish and Rev. Josoma comes after the Archdiocese of Boston called for the removal of the sign, calling it “divisive political messaging” in a Friday statement to the Herald.
“The people of God have the right to expect that, when they come to church, they will encounter genuine opportunities for prayer and Catholic worship—not divisive political messaging. The Church’s norms prohibit the use of sacred objects for any purpose other than the devotion of God’s people. This includes images of the Christ Child in the manger, which are to be used solely to foster faith and devotion,” said Archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon, who said the parish never received permission to display the sign.
“St. Susanna Parish neither requested nor received permission from the Archdiocese to depart from this canonical norm or to place a politically divisive display outside the church. The display should be removed, and the manger restored to its proper sacred purpose,” he said.
The sign even caught the ire of top brass at ICE, including Acting Director Todd Lyons, who told the Herald that political stunts like this attribute to the sharp increase in assaults on ICE officers and agents.
“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. This reverend has become infamous for using his pulpit to advance his activist agenda and has now caught the attention of the Archdiocese of Boston, who has publicly condemned Josoma’s most recent political stunt,” Lyons said.
In addition to serving on the Trump campaign, Walsh also was an elected delegate for former President Ronald Reagan at the 1984 GOP Convention. He also served as the chief secretary for U.S. ambassador to Ireland Margaret Heckler from 1987 to 1989.
As of the timing of this report, the “ICE was here” sign remains at the Nativity scene outside the parish, tucked behind protective glass.
The Herald has made numerous requests with the parish and Rev. Josoma for comment, all of which have gone unanswered.
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