How One Small Bag Of Food On A Giant Sculpture Tells A Million Immigrant Tales
On the Vatican's World Day of Migrants and Refugees, in September, Pope Francis unveiled a sculpture in St. Peter's Square to commemorate the travails and hopes of displaced people through human history.
The arresting, 20-foot-tall bronze boat loaded with refugees and migrants is the work of Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, known for his moving Homeless Jesus and Hungry and Thirsty public statues. This latest work, Angels Unawares, takes its name from the biblical imperative from Hebrews: "Be welcoming to strangers, many have entertained angels unawares."
Among those adrift are Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus crossing the border into Egypt to outrun Herod's murderous decree; Native Americans hounded from their lands; Africans sold into bondage; Irish left destitute by the potato famine; Chinese laborers; Europeans escaping the religious wars and feudalism of the ; Jews fleeing genocide; Vietnamese boat people; and — most pertinent to the current moment and the moral goad behind the sculpture — Syrians pouring out of the catastrophic civil war that has
