It’s an unconventional rendering of Jesus that was rejected years ago by top officials with two major Catholic cathedrals, yet it now sits in one of the world’s holiest sites.
Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz was thrilled to receive an email a few days ago telling him his bronze sculpture, Homeless Jesus, has been installed inside the Vatican.
It’s a coup for Schmalz, 46, a full-time sculptor, whose depiction of Jesus — as a homeless person lying on a bench with wounds in his feet and covered by a blanket — has faced several rejections, including in Toronto. It can now be found in the courtyard of Sant’Egidio, at the entrance of the Office of Papal Charities.
The life-size statue, which took Schmalz eight months to create, is a replica of the first bronze cast, which was installed in 2013 in front of the University of Toronto’s Regis College on Wellesley St. W., the Jesuit graduate faculty of theology.
“I was overwhelmed with happiness,” Schmalz said about receiving the news last week.
Schmalz, of St. Jacobs, Ont., says it’s fitting that Homeless Jesus is situated outside the papal charities office.
“Historically, symbolically, it’s probably the greatest location for it,” Schmalz said this week in an interview.
He noted the papal charities have been doing a lot for the homeless since Pope Francis came to power in March 2013. Last year, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, head of the charities, unveiled showers for homeless pilgrims near St. Peter’s Square. Free shaves and haircuts are also now offered.
Schmalz said his sculpture reflects verses in the Bible that talk about the need to show compassion and care for the least fortunate. His inspiration was the sight of a homeless man on University Ave. a few years ago.
Father Michael Czerny, a Canadian who now works for the Vatican department responsible for social issues, said the Pope was “impressed” with Schmalz’s statue.
“The statue represents an image of Christ in a way we don’t always recognize,” Czerny said.
In 2013, the Pope blessed a five-foot, wood and cast stone model of the statue at the Vatican, calling it a “beautiful piece of art.”
That meeting with the Pope probably kick-started the push to get the larger version of the statue brought in to the Vatican, Schmalz believes.
In the email to Schmalz last week, Czerny wrote that officials in the Vatican, including Archbishop Konrad, were so excited to receive the statue in a crate that they tore open the box.
Over the years, copies of the statue have been installed in dozens of U.S. cities, typically at places of worship. Overseas, one has recently been installed in India, and one is being shipped to the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid.
The original sculpture was made from clay at Schmalz’s home, and from that he made a rubber mould. He uses the services of a foundry to make the bronze casts.
It has at times been controversial. Several years ago, it was rejected by officials responsible for two prominent Catholic churches, St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Rectors at both cathedrals thought favourably of the piece, but they were overruled by higher authorities in the New York and Toronto archdioceses.
It was not an appropriate image, those officials felt.
The statue then sat in a crate for about a year, before being installed at Regis College in 2013.
In London, Methodist Central Hall, across from Westminster Abbey, wanted to install it in front of its church, but the City of Westminster’s council rejected that, saying the sculpture would fail to preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square conservation area. An online petition has been launched to try to overturn that decision.
Another church in London, St Martin-in-the-Fields, rejected the statue because it has a rule banning people from lying down inside church, and there were fears the statue would expose the church to ridicule, according to the Church Times.
source:thestar