A monumental work of art depicting migrants and refugees seeking a home has found a permanent home in Washington, D.C., as the Welcome Plaza at The Catholic University of America was blessed and dedicated as the setting of artist Timothy Schmalz’s dramatic “Angels Unawares” sculpture.

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Catholic University’s chancellor, blessed the plaza on April 22, with philanthropist and arts patron Jacqueline Mars pushing a button that initiated water flowing around the base of the sculpture, forming a reflecting pool. The dramatic sculpture depicts 140 diverse migrants and refugees from different countries and historical eras huddled together on a boat as if seeking a safe harbor, with the flowing water in the reflecting pool seeming to represent the tides carrying the boat’s occupants toward a new life. 

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” said Mars, who made a gift of $1.25 million for the plaza. Speaking in a ceremony before the blessing, she said, “…I believe that this statue so personifies exactly what we should be doing, welcoming the stranger.”

The co-owner of Mars, the world’s largest candy company, said the sculpture reflected how the United States was founded by immigrants, and she said it was very meaningful to her that the refugees in the artwork included the Holy Family, shown on their flight into Egypt with Joseph holding carpentry tools and Mary cradling the baby Jesus in her arms.

Noting the sculpture and plaza’s location, surrounded by the Catholic University campus and with the nearby Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception forming a majestic backdrop, Mars said, “I chose to support Welcome Plaza because I felt this location was a place where the statue could speak to a variety of people: young and old, from this country and elsewhere.” She pointed out that the basilica draws pilgrims and Catholic University attracts students from across the country and around the world.

“They (students) are forming their ideas about the world, what is meaningful to them, and what is right. To experience ‘Angels Unawares’ in person is an important lesson for all of us,” she said.

The 20-foot-long, 3.5-ton bronze sculpture is the second casting of that artwork by Schmalz, with the originally commissioned by the Vatican and placed in St. Peter’s Square, where it was unveiled by Pope Francis in September 2019 for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. One year later, the second sculpture was blessed by then-Archbishop Gregory at Catholic University, before it traveled on a 9,700-mile tour across the country, and was displayed in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, San Antonio, the city of Napa in California, Minneapolis and Chicago, before returning to its permanent location on the CUA campus.

Speaking about the journey of the life-sized sculpture of the migrants and refugees crowded on a boat, Catholic University president John Garvey joked, “Nineteen months later, the sculpture has finally arrived in port, and we have settled the matter of where to dock it.”

Noting its location next to Michigan Avenue, in an open space between Gibbons and O’Connell halls, Mark Ferguson, the dean of CUA’s School of Architecture and Planning, said, “It is a natural gateway to campus,” adding that the vista with view of the surrounding lawn, trees, university buildings and the basilica, offered a “green sanctuary” and “a place of contemplation and beauty.”

From that busy Washington street, a stone marker identifies Welcome Plaza and the “Angels Unawares” sculpture, and includes the biblical quote from Hebrews 13:2 that inspired the work, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

To reinforce that spiritual message of welcoming newcomers, large angel wings stretch skyward in the middle of the figures standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the boat.

In his opening prayer at the gathering, Archbishop Christophe Pierre – the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the United States – noted that these are “dramatic days, when so many of our brothers and sisters are forced from their homes” by war and domestic strife.

“Most of all, oh Lord, we ask you to send your holy angels to comfort the migrants and refugees, the marginalized and the despondent and those who care for them,” he prayed.

Also addressing guests was Schmalz, who said viewing it again brought him a flashback of the faces he used as models for the work. The Canadian artist said some, including African refugees, were live models who posed for him in his studio, while many of the historical figures were based on photos from the archives of Ellis Island.

The figures in the front of the sculpture include a Muslim woman fleeing Syria, a Jewish man holding suitcases while escaping Nazi Germany, a pregnant woman from Poland, and an Irish boy leaving home because of that country’s potato famine.

In the back of the sculpture, the figures include a Cherokee man with his hand clutching his face in sorrow as he is forced from his tribe’s lands during the “Trail of Tears.” The figures in the sculpture represent a range of ages, ethnic backgrounds and emotions. Most look forward, and some look back.

“I hope when people look at it, they will see themselves within it,” said Schmalz.

Garvey in his remarks thanked an anonymous donor for bringing the sculpture to campus and also expressed gratitude to Mars and to the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Foundation for providing funding for the plaza.

Catholic University’s president noted many factors cause people to leave their homes and become immigrants, including seeking safety, security and a fresh start, and some come to a new land against their will, like the enslaved people brought to America.

He added that today many are fleeing war and persecution, like the estimated five million Ukrainians who have fled their homeland in the past two months following Russia’s brutal military invasion there.

Climate change also causes immigration, Garvey said, pointing to a Vatican estimate that “climate change displaced almost 25 million people in 2019. Floods, landslides, fires, droughts and hurricanes will cause further displacement in the future.”

Noting how President Franklin Roosevelt said America is a nation of immigrants, Garvey added, “It’s only an accident of timing that explains why they’re on the boat and we’re on the shore. Our parents just chose a different time to set sail.”

In his remarks at the ceremony, Cardinal Gregory noted how the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, was dedicated in 1886 after money was raised in the United States for its platform.

“In many respects, this is a smaller but equally significant reminder of who we are as a people,” said Cardinal Gregory, noting that the statue in New York Harbor and the sculpture on the Catholic University campus remind Americans of how they should be “a welcoming people, a people who open our arms to those who come as new neighbors, those who come seeking freedom, those who come seeking possibility.”

The cardinal said the “Angels Unawares” sculpture “reminds us of who we are supposed to be when we are at our best.”

The interfaith ceremony also included remarks by an Episcopal priest, a Muslim imam and a Jewish rabbi, who noted how welcoming strangers is a central tenet to their faiths.

Rev. Randolph Hollerith, an Episcopal priest who serves as the dean of Washington National Cathedral, said the sculpture “now takes its place among the other monuments in the nation’s capital which push us to reflect upon and uphold our highest ideals as people… My prayer tonight is that we never lose sight of these angels among us.”

Imam Talib Shareef, the president and imam of Masjid Muhammad, The Nation’s Mosque in Washington, noted the story of Abraham welcoming two guests who turned out to be angels.

The imam said the sculpture depicting immigrants reflected the diversity of America’s people who “like in that boat have all contributed to the beauty and the strength of America, a nation of nations, a country made up of people from every land.”

Also speaking was Rabbi Esther Lederman, the Union for Reform Judaism’s  director of congregational innovation, who pointed out that “36 times in the Torah and Hebrew Bible, the Jewish people are commanded, ‘Do not harm a stranger, for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.’” She added, “This theme of welcoming the stranger is the lifeblood of the Jewish people.”

Reflecting on how she felt after viewing the “Angels Unawares” sculpture, Rabbi Lederman said, “I saw the faces of my grandparents, who did ride a boat from Europe to the new world.”

Schmalz’s other artwork in Washington include a bronze statue of Jesus depicted as a homeless man asleep on a park bench outside the headquarters of Catholic Charities, a sculpture of a homeless Jesus wrapped in a blanket seeking alms outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, and a sculpture of Jesus as a poor, hungry man outside Holy Trinity’s chapel in the Georgetown neighborhood.

In an interview, the artist said that the “Angels Unawares” in its Welcome Plaza setting offers an oasis in the nation’s capital that celebrates the story of immigrants in America. And he noted that with this casting of the sculpture, the figures in the boat are able to be surrounded by water, which couldn’t be done in St. Peter’s Square.

Jacqueline Mars in her remarks at the ceremony said she “felt strongly about the water element and that the statue should be floating as on a boat. When you think of all the immigrants and the images we see of many of them crossing at sea to escape, it just seemed appropriate to have that water element in the plaza, too.”

Concluding her remarks, Mars said, “I truly hope ‘Angels Unawares’ will move people to a generosity of spirit toward immigrants. I find the statue very moving, and it really reminds me of what this country is about… It’s such an important piece of art, and I’m very proud to have it as part of Catholic University. So sail on little boat forever and spread your message.”