(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 04.16.2025).- In the quiet shadow of St. Peter’s Basilica, just steps away from the Vatican’s showers, restrooms, and dispensary for the homeless, a new presence now sits—patient and silent. On April 15, a bronze sculpture titled «Be Welcoming» was installed beneath the internal staircase of Bernini’s colonnade. It doesn’t shout or sparkle, but it speaks volumes. Crafted by Canadian sculptor Timothy Paul Schmalz, the artwork is an invitation to encounter the sacred in the hidden corners of humanity.
The figure depicted is a weary traveler—hooded, hunched, staff in hand, belongings packed in a weathered bag. It might be easy to mistake him for one of Rome’s countless homeless, often overlooked by pilgrims rushing toward the Basilica. But this figure holds a secret.
From the front, he is the stranger, the outsider. But walk around him—take a second look—and something changes: the bag unfolds into wings, the hood lifts into flowing hair, and the man becomes an angel. The transformation echoes Hebrews 13:2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
This is theology made tactile, art designed to be encountered rather than merely observed. The sculpture is not cordoned off or raised on a pedestal—it invites passersby to sit down beside the stranger, physically sharing the space of divine mystery.
Pope Francis has long championed this kind of embodied theology. In a 2024 address, he called helping the poor a “sacrament,” a visible sign of an invisible grace. “To touch the poor, to help the poor, is to touch Christ,” he said. “A meal, a smile, stretching out our hands without fear of getting them dirty—that’s how dignity is restored.”
Schmalz is no stranger to the Vatican. His earlier pieces— «Angels Unaware», featuring 140 migrants cast in bronze, and «Homeless Jesus», a sculpture of Christ sleeping on a bench—already occupy prominent spaces around St. Peter’s. With «Be Welcoming», the artist continues to bring Scripture down to street level, where faith meets reality.
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