QUINCY, Mass. — A Norfolk Superior Court judge is temporarily halting the installation of Catholic statues at one of the city’s public buildings while the case plays out in court.
In May, residents sued the city, alleging the Catholic saints’ statues violate the separation of church and state.
The two statues, which cost taxpayers $850,000, were going to be put outside the new public safety headquarters.
The lawsuit claims that the proposed religious statues would impose religious imagery and symbols on all who work in, visit, or pass by the public safety building.
The claimants say the presence of the statue would convey the message that Quincy is a Catholic community, making non-Catholics feel unwelcome and less valued.
“My Christian faith is at the core of my life — and the City’s plan to install religious statues at the entrance to a government building goes against that faith,” said Conevery Bolton Valencius, one of the plaintiffs in this case. “As residents of Quincy, we should not have to walk under such looming religious imagery to seek help from public safety officers or city services. I go to church because it is my choice to freely practice my religion, but having to walk beneath these statues to enter a government building removes that choice. The City should not be seen to favor religious believers — much less adherents to a particular faith — above others. I am grateful to the court for recognizing this essential principle.”
“We welcome this decision to preserve religious liberty,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “The government simply has no business playing favorites with faith.”
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