A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has put a temporary stop to the installation of Catholic religious statues on Quincy's new public safety building, responding to a lawsuit concerning the separation of church and state, as reported by NBC Boston. This halt was also reported by MassLive, which highlighted the impact on Massachusetts taxpayers footing the nearly $1 million bill for the statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian, renowned amongst police and fire departments as patron saints.
The group suing the city did so with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and issued their concerns about the blurring lines between religious symbols and government property. Conevery Bolton, a plaintiff in the case, expressed discomfort at having to walk beneath the religious statues to enter a government building. This is according to the ACLU, which argues that the imagery implies a lean toward a specific faith, whereas the Massachusetts Constitution requires neutrality. This argument was essential to Judge William Sullivan's decision to grant the injunction, citing the constitutional necessity for religious neutrality and rejecting the city's request to dismiss the lawsuit, infuriating some who see the saints as integral figures emblematic of the virtues they believe are critical to the ethos of public service, as noted by NBC Boston.
Quincy's City Solicitor Jim Timmins had defended the secular iconography of the statues in court, stating their importance goes beyond religious symbolism, drawing on historical appreciation. It wasn’t enough to dissuade the court's stance, outlined by Sullivan's invocation of Quincy's founding father, John Adams, and his role in creating a constitution that deprecated the elevation of any one religious sect over another.
Pushback against the ruling did emerge, with Quincy Police Chief Mark Kennedy expressing his honor at the proposed St. Michael statue, while Mayor Tom Koch took a stance of defending the symbols as transcending religion, stating, "Police officers hold in high regard the image of St. Michael. It speaks for truth and justice good over evil. Florian speaks to bravery and courage, and it goes back to Roman soldier in charge of the fire brigades," as he reiterated to NBC10 Boston this year his commitment to the imagery which has longstanding recognition in police and fire services.
