{"id":66766,"date":"2025-11-05T00:42:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=66766"},"modified":"2025-11-05T00:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:42:21","slug":"judge-rules-against-saints-statues-on-massachusetts-government-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/learn\/judge-rules-against-saints-statues-on-massachusetts-government-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge rules against saints\u2019 statues on Massachusetts government building"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n Statues of St. Florian (at left) and St. Michael the Archangel (at right) are currently barred from appearing on the planned public safety building of Quincy, Massachusetts. \/ Credit: Courtesy of Office of Mayor Thomas Koch<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Boston, Massachusetts, Oct 16, 2025 \/ 12:18 pm (CNA).<\/p>\n

A Massachusetts trial court judge has issued an order blocking the installation of statues of two Catholic saints on a new public safety building in the city of Quincy, setting up a likely appeal that may determine how the state treats separation of church and state disputes going forward.<\/p>\n

The 10-foot-high bronze statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian, which were scheduled to be installed on the building\u2019s fa\u00e7ade this month, will instead await a higher court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

The statues cost an estimated $850,000, part of the new, $175 million public safety building that will serve as police headquarters and administration offices for the Boston suburb\u2019s fire department.<\/p>\n

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, a practicing Catholic, has said he chose St. Michael the Archangel because he is the patron of police officers and St. Florian because he is the patron of firefighters, not to send a message about religion.<\/p>\n

But the judge said the statues can\u2019t be separated from the saints\u2019 Catholic connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complaint here plausibly alleges that the statues at issue convey a message endorsing one religion over others,\u201d Norfolk County Superior Court Judge William Sullivan wrote in a 26-page \u064a\u0623\u062a\u064a \u0627\u0644\u062d\u0643\u0645<\/a> Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that the statues \u201crepresent two Catholic saints.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statues, particularly when considered together, patently endorse Catholic beliefs,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit challenging the statues \u2014 15 city residents represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts \u2014 have amassed facts that \u201cplausibly suggest that an objective observer would view these statues on the fa\u00e7ade of the public safety building as primarily endorsing Catholicism\/Christianity and conveying a distinctly religious message,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

Rachel Davidson, staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts, who argued the case during a lengthy court hearing on Sept. 19, praised the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling affirms the bedrock principle that our government cannot favor one religion above others, or religious beliefs over nonreligious beliefs,\u201d Davidson said in a \u0628\u064a\u0627\u0646 \u0645\u0643\u062a\u0648\u0628<\/a>. \u201cWe are grateful to the court for acknowledging the immediate harm that the installation of these statues would cause and for ensuring that Quincy residents can continue to make their case for the proper separation of church and state, as the Massachusetts Constitution requires.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor said the city will appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose the statues of Michael and Florian to honor Quincy\u2019s first responders, not to promote any religion,\u201d Koch said in a written statement provided to the National Catholic Register, CNA\u2019s sister news partner, by a spokesman. \u201cThese figures are recognized symbols of courage and sacrifice in police and fire communities across the world. We will appeal this ruling so our city can continue to celebrate and inspire the men and women who protect us.\u201d The lawsuit, which was filed May 27<\/a> in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, relies on the Massachusetts Constitution, not the U.S. Constitution, but there is a tie-in.<\/p>\n

In 1979, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court adopted the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 1971 three-pronged \u201cLemon test\u201d when considering church and state cases \u2014 whether a law concerning religion has \u201ca secular legislative purpose,\u201d whether \u201cits principal or primary effect \u2026 neither advances [n]or inhibits religion,\u201d and whether it fosters \u201cexcessive entanglement between government and religion.\u201d <\/p>\n

The state\u2019s highest court also added a fourth standard \u2014 whether a \u201cchallenged practice\u201d has \u201cdivisive political potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ditched the Lemon test in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District<\/a>, a case involving prayers offered by a high school football coach<\/a> in Washington state.<\/p>\n

If the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which is the ultimate interpreter of state law, takes the Quincy statues dispute, it would be the first time the court has considered a case on point since the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Kennedy decision.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/267181\/judge-rules-against-saints-statues-on-massachusetts-government-building<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statues of St. Florian (at left) and St. Michael the Archangel (at right) are currently barred from appearing on the planned public safety building of Quincy, Massachusetts. \/ Credit: Courtesy of Office of Mayor Thomas Koch Boston, Massachusetts, Oct 16, 2025 \/ 12:18 pm (CNA). A Massachusetts trial court judge has issued an order blocking […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":68369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-66766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Judge-rules-against-saints-statues-on-Massachusetts-government-building.webp?fit=716%2C478&quality=75&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"mfb_rest_fields":["title","jetpack_publicize_connections","jetpack_featured_media_url","jetpack-related-posts","jetpack_sharing_enabled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66766"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=66766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}