'Angels Unawares': Traveling Bronze Sculpture Honoring Migrants Installed At Bayfront Park

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – There's a new addition to downtown Miami's Bayfront Park.

The traveling bronze, life-sized sculpture called "Angels Unawares," which honors migrants, is now up.

CBS4 Photojournalist Peter Miranda got a closer look as the sculpture was hoisted into place.

"This is a great location for it. Again, it's most of the highway so people can see it. But also they can walk by and take pictures of it as they visit Bayside, or any other place here in downtown Miami to see the face of everybody," said Archbishop of Miami Thomas Wenski.

Pope Francis unveiled the original sculpture in St. Peter's Square back in 2019.

"The statue is a work of art that has traveled the world, has been in the Vatican," Wenski said. "It represents the story of the human family, which is a story of migration. And here in South Florida, really Miami, is the Ellis Island of the south. And so the story of migration is the story of Miami. So this is a very apt statue to have visit with us and allow people to reflect on that story and to see themselves and the story of migration."

Wenski went on to describe the different parts of the statue, and the story it tells.

"The statue has figures and faces of migrants throughout history. You can see in that statue Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus, because they were refugees when they had to leave Egypt to escape King Herod," Wenski said. "You have people that were brought here from Africa, so there are Africans there. There are immigrants from Europe and other countries. So it really puts the whole human family in the same boat."