The Knights of Columbus is among a coalition of 18 organizations and scholars — including major firefighter and police associations — that filed friend-of-the-court briefs asking Massachusetts’ highest court to protect the City of Quincy’s freedom to erect statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian in honor of its firefighters and police officers.
Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city and Mayor Thomas Koch on behalf of residents opposed to the mayor’s plan to install 10-foot statues of Florian and Michael on the façade of the city’s new public safety headquarters, securing a preliminary injunction blocking their installation. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments from both sides May 6.
According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, counsel for the City of Quincy, Michael and Florian have long served as symbols of law enforcement and firefighting. Their images — or symbols such as the Florian cross — appear on uniforms and public buildings in the United States and around the world and are used by police officers and firefighters regardless of religious affiliation.
The Knights’ brief cites the Order’s longstanding ties to the first responder community, including scholarships for children of firefighters and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, financial assistance provided to families affected by the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Blue Masses organized by local councils and disaster relief efforts undertaken alongside first responders. “Police and firefighters — so many of whom are, or work with, brother Knights — should not be consigned to a work environment utterly stripped of religious meaning,” the brief states.








