Why Cardinal Czerny and sculptor Timothy Schmalz brought ‘Angels Unawares’ to the Vatican

Rome Newsroom, Jan 26, 2025 / 09:45 am

Canadians Cardinal Michael Czerny and sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz on Thursday in Rome spoke about evangelization through art as part of festivities linked to the Jan. 24–26 Jubilee of the World of Communications, emphasizing that words are not necessary to share the Catholic faith with others.

Czerny, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said Schmalz’s statue Angels Unawares, which was installed in St. Peter’s Square in 2019 to commemorate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, silently yet eloquently depicts the experience of millions of people throughout history.

“More often than not, you have the impression that people are looking for themselves — they’re looking for their ancestors, they’re looking for their people, and they find them,” Czerny shared with some 350 conference participants.

“I think in this way this sculpture communicates something which, as we know now, is also highly political if not violent [at times], without words and without labels,” the cardinal said.

Canadians Cardinal Michael Czerny and sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Rome speak about evangelization through art as part of festivities linked to the Jan. 24–26 Jubilee of the World of Communications, emphasizing that words are not necessary to share the Catholic faith with others. Credit: Kristina Millare/CNA

Speaking about the 140 figures of Angels Unawares, Schmalz said Czerny’s request for the sculpture had given him the opportunity to depict the “mosaic of emotions” experienced by migrants and refugees from different times and places. 

“I have joy, I have happiness, but I also have despair represented,” he said. “Hopefully some of those faces, some of those expressions, will touch the people that see it.”  

The biblical verse “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2) was what inspired Schmalz to place an angel at the center of his artwork. 

“You can only see the wings because of the crowd of people,” he explained. “I thought that’s a discreet, subtle way of giving a visual translation to that beautiful passage of Scripture — because it is discreet.”

Czerny described the angel in the middle of Schmalz’s sculpture as a symbol of the “beautiful truth” experienced by those who have welcomed migrants and refugees.

“They will always tell you that they received more than they gave,” he shared. “That this person or this family who would have somehow come into their lives is a gift from God.”

“At the same time, if you talk with a migrant or refugee who has had the good fortune of bumping into someone inspired by the Gospel, or at least by human motivations, they will say they were saved by an angel — that an angel came into our life,” he continued.  

Toward the end of the meeting on evangelization through art, the Canadian cardinal reiterated the pope’s call to uphold the dignity of those who have left their homelands.

“Pope Francis says — which I think is a great balance between our [Catholic] teaching and reality in the world — that we are obliged to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate migrants and refugees to the capacity of our society,” he said.