(LifeSiteNews) — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday unanimously upheld a preliminary injunction blocking the city of Quincy from installing two statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian outside its new public safety building.
The ruling affirmed a Norfolk Superior Court decision from October 2025 that paused the project while the lawsuit proceeds.
The statues depict the traditional patron saints of police officers and firefighters, respectively. Mayor Thomas Koch and other city officials have maintained that the works were chosen to honor first responders’ bravery and sacrifice rather than to promote any religion. The sculptures have already been completed and remain in storage while the new public safety complex itself is now finished and functioning without them in place.
Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) and other organizations, a group of residents sued the city in 2025, arguing the statues violate the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights by conveying government endorsement of Catholicism and subordinating other faiths or non-belief.
The high court agreed with the lower court ruling granting the injunction, writing the statues “are large and will stand alone, they are brand new rather than long standing, they are closely affiliated with a particular religion, and they thus may convey to observing members of the public implicit government support for that religion and, as a result, subordination of other religions.”
In response to this decision, Quincy spokesperson Lisa Aimola said that the city will continue fighting the case.
“Quincy’s firefighters and police put their lives on the line for this city every day, and these statues were chosen to honor their bravery, service, and sacrifice,” she said. “This decision is disappointing, but it is preliminary, and we will continue to fight for the ability to commemorate our first responders as the law permits.”
Hypocrisy: religious art in public buildings across the Commonwealth
CJ Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, also responded to the ruling.
“Today’s decision is unfortunate but also unsurprising. There is not a single constitutional conservative on the seven-man court, the oldest (continuously sitting appellate court) in the United States. All are, in varying degrees, progressive secularists, appointed by liberal governors of both parties,” he told LifeSiteNews via email.
“This decision suggests a willingness to impose a rigid, absolutist standard in church-state issues that does not comport with traditional practices in the Commonwealth,” Doyle said.
He went on to note that works of art of religious significance appear in public buildings across Massachusetts, including the State House, Boston Public Library, Cambridge Public Library, Newton City Hall, and the Cary Library in Lexington.
He added that numerous public schools have been named after Protestant ministers.
Saints part of long-standing professional traditions
“With the ACLU representing the plaintiffs, supported by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the anti-Catholic hate group Americans United, this case bears a strong resemblance to the Blaine Amendment controversies of 150 years ago, where anti-Catholic bigotry masqueraded as non-sectarianism and constitutional neutrality,” Doyle warned.
He further argued that the court’s portrayal of the statues as exclusively Catholic “ignores the role of these two saints in the culture and iconography of first responders, and in the veneration afforded them in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism.”
In an interview with LifeSiteNews last October, the Catholic activist pointed out how this iconography can be seen in the sponsorship of the Ancient Order of Saint Michael and Saint Florian by the First Responders Foundation. This honor consists of a two-sided medal with images of these saints to police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians who have “demonstrated the highest standards of integrity, bravery, honor and moral character” in the discharge of their duties.
Such long-standing first responder traditions are also reflected in the banquet hall of the Boston Firefighters Local 718, International Association of Firefighters, in Dorchester, which is named Florian Hall.
The Catholic Action leader observed in his conclusion that “the same groups and individuals who complain about giving preference to Catholicism – the lead plaintiff is a Unitarian Universalist – seem determined to impose their own ideology of exclusion, with its radical hostility to religious expression, on the citizens of the Commonwealth.”
The case now returns to Norfolk Superior Court for further proceedings on the merits.
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