The state’s Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit over Quincy’s plan to install statues of two Catholic saints in front of the city’s new public safety building.
In October, a Superior Court judge temporarily blocked the installation of the ten-foot statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian — the patron saints of police and firefighters, respectively — after finding it would violate Article III of the Massachusetts Constitution, which mandates government neutrality in matters of religion.
Joseph Davis, an attorney representing the city, told the court’s justices that St. Michael and St. Florian have significance not just for Catholics but for members of other faiths, and that their meaning for police and firefighters transcends the religious sphere…