Massachusetts church puts baby Jesus in cage for nativity scene in show of solidarity with migrants

The St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts has sparked controversy in displaying an unorthodox nativity scene featuring baby Jesus locked up in a cage.

The church’s unconventional display is an act of protest against President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that has separated undocumented families when attempting to cross the US-Mexico border.

The display features baby Jesus Christ caged up, a symbolic representation of the migrant children ripped away from their mothers at the Southern border, and a wall surrounding the three wise mean, which represents the “migrant caravan” attempting to enter the country.

The men are also shown to be separated from the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus with a fence marked as “deportation.”

The sign above the nativity scene display reads “Peace on Earth?”

Pastor Father Stephen Josoma said the church wanted to take a “picture of the world as it is and put it together with a Christmas message.”

The church’s Pax Christi group came up with the idea for the creative nativity scene. Pax Christi is an international Catholic peace movement, with groups in churches around the world, whose aim is to “to educate the community on matters related to peace and justice issues including war, torture, the environmental degradation of our world.”

Pat Ferrone, a member of the Catholic group’s committee, said that the point of the nativity scene was intended to prompt reflection of the current state of American society. “We’re not trying to scandalise anyone. We’re trying to reflect back a reality that has to be looked at.”

The church’s parishioners were quick to welcome the nativity scene, citing that Jesus himself was “political.”

Christ was political, he was hung on a cross for making political statements and bucking authority and that’s exactly why he died,” Phil Mandeville, a parishioner at St. Susanna’s, said.

This is the second nativity scene display with a political statement that earned St. Susanna news headlines. Last year, the church’s placed signs in their display that documented the locations and numbers of deaths from mass shootings across the country.