“ICE Was Here”: Pope Leo-Inspired Nativity Scene Sparks MAGA Outrage

A Nativity scene missing Jesus — and marked with an “ICE was here” sign — has triggered cries of “politicizing Christmas.” The parish priest says he’s answering Pope Leo's call to welcome stranger.

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At St. Susanna’s Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, the Christmas manger is shockingly empty this year.

In place of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus, an ominous hand-painted sign now reads: “ICE WAS HERE.”

Pastor Father Stephen Josoma says he removed the Holy Family on purpose — to jolt his flock’s conscience about immigrant families being torn apart by deportation raids.

“You feed the hungry, you take care of the homeless, you clothe the naked, you take care of people and their needs,” Josoma explained, invoking the Gospel’s commands. “[ICE raids] are the complete antithesis of that on so many levels”

According to Josoma, ripping a child from their parents at Christmas stands in total opposition to the Nativity story. The priest’s unconventional protest aims to “help people recognize the plight of people who are really in dire need, and how we’re treating them”, and to call us back to our best selves during the season when Christ himself came as a vulnerable child.

Reactions have been fierce. Local parishioners overwhelmingly support their pastor – “Jesus was a refugee,” one woman pointed out, noting how the Holy Family fled violence — but right-wing media voices erupted in outrage.

Fox News pundits and a right-wing Catholic lobbying group lambasted Josoma as a “dissident” doing “political publicity stunts” and “politicizing Christmas.”

It’s a familiar refrain: when St. Susanna’s displayed a caged Jesus in the manger back in 2018 to protest family separations, Fox’s Sean Hannity screamed “CHRISTMAS IS UNDER SIEGE” on air.

This time, critics are again branding the priest’s Nativity as offensive and “disrespectful” — one caller even phoned Josoma to call him a “murderer,” he says. Father Josoma remains unbowed.

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

In fact, he notes, his Nativity message is fully in line with the Catholic Church’s teaching — not some personal whim.

Pope Leo’s Pro-Migrant Vision Takes Root

Far from a rogue Massachusetts outlier, Father Josoma is tapping into a new moral clarity coming from the very top of the Church. Pope Leo XIV has been relentless in condemning the cruelty of hardline immigration crackdowns.

Here’s what Pope Leo has said and done the past few months.