Mural unveiled at St. Patrick's Cathedral sends a message on immigration
NEW YORK (RNS) — ‘Some have asked me, are you trying to make a statement about immigration?’ said Cardinal Timothy Dolan. ‘Well, sure we are.’
People view a new mural painted by artist Adam Cvijanovic at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sept. 18, 2025, in New York. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)
Fiona Murphy
September 22, 2025
NEW YORK (RNS) — A 25-foot mural at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, unveiled last week and blessed during Sunday Mass (Sept. 21), honors generations of immigrants to New York, taking on a new meaning in today’s political climate.
“Some have asked me, are you trying to make a statement about immigration?” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, during a press conference on Thursday. “Well, sure we are.”
The mural, “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding,” was two years in the making and spans the three-wall entrance of the 146-year-old cathedral. Created by Brooklyn-based painter Adam Cvijanovic, it features life-sized, realistic portraits of Irish immigrants fleeing famine in the 19th century, alongside contemporary Latino, Asian and Black immigrants, shown with backpacks and determined expressions. Mother Frances Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized and the patron saint of immigrants, is depicted among them.
Reporters from across New York and the United States crowded into St. Patrick’s on Thursday to snap photos of the new mural, a rare art commission for the historic cathedral. It comes as crackdowns on immigration and deportation raids have swept across the country as ordered by the Trump administration. Many people living in New York, a city home to millions of immigrants, wonder about the future of their communities.
Dolan’s mother, Shirley Jean Radcliffe Dolan, is captured in the painting among the Irish immigrants, though it was Dolan’s great-grandparents who arrived to New York from Ireland.
“That was a surprise to me,” Dolan said to reporters. “If you can’t pick her out, she’s the one with the Saks Fifth Avenue bag and the bottle of Jameson in the bag.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, left, with artist Adam Cvijanovic, unveils a new mural painted by Cvijanovic at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Sept. 17, 2025, in New York. The mural, which is the largest permanent artwork commissioned for the cathedral in its 146-year history, celebrates the 1879 Apparition at Knock, Ireland, the faith of generations of immigrants to New York and the service of New York City’s first responders. (Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for the Archdiocese of New York)
One of the panels on the Fifth Avenue side wall portrays five New York City first responders with an angel holding a firefighter’s helmet above them. Another shows historic Catholic leaders such as Archbishop John Joseph Hughes, the first Archbishop of New York, who initiated the construction of St. Patrick’s Cathedral; Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement; Pierre Toussaint, the Haiti-born philanthropist and former slave buried in the cathedral’s crypt; and Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint.
Dolan said the commission was inspired by the apparition at Knock, an apparition of Mary reported in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1879, a location the archbishop has visited numerous times.
“Immigrants are children of God,” Dolan said during the press conference. “The people of Israel in the Old Testament and the people formed by Jesus Christ have been challenged to always be warm and embracing for the immigrants. So, the fact that the church would mirror that, no surprise at all.”
Dolan has criticized anti-immigrant rhetoric and echoed support of the Catholic Church’s ministry to migrants, although he has seemingly maintained a cordial relationship with President Donald Trump. The cardinal sits on the national Religious Liberty Commission, which Trump established earlier this year.
Immigrants are featured in a panel of a new mural painted by artist Adam Cvijanovic at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Sept. 18, 2025, in New York. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)
“If we look at the people in the pews in daily Mass, most people are immigrants,” the Rev. Enrique Salvo, the rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, told RNS. “Therefore, we have to see the dignity of the human person in everyone. No matter what the political viewpoints are, that we put (them) aside when we are encountering one on one.”
Cvijanovic, a self-taught painter from Massachusetts known for creating large historical landscapes, said that although the mural’s concept predates today’s political battles over migration, he is glad it speaks to the present moment.
“We didn’t know that this was going to happen quite like this,” Cvijanovic said. “But now, I feel truly grateful to be able to take a stand about it, and to give a place where people who are being told that they don’t belong, that they belong.”
In the mural, streams of gold leaf oil paint fall down from the heavenly realm onto those below, all of whom were modeled from real people. Even the Lamb of God, painted as a small lamb on the south wall to depict Jesus, was drawn based on a lamb in New Jersey, Cvijanovic said.
Choir members admire panels of a new mural painted by artist Adam Cvijanovic at its unveiling at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sept. 17, 2025, in New York. (Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for the Archdiocese of New York)
Raised in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Cvijanovic was inspired by his own religious background for the mural’s style, he said. Golden icon screens from the Byzantine church, which separated altars from congregations, have a clear influence on the piece.
“The Eastern Church influence is there, buried in it, translated into my interpretation of Catholic tradition and my interpretation of what New York needed right at the moment,” Cvijanovic said. The mural incorporates more than 5,000 sheets of gold.
Cvijanovic said that today, he practices his faith through his art. “The painting is a devotional act,” he said. “That’s how I pray, through paint.”
Kevin Conway, vice chairman of a global equity firm and the principal donor behind the mural, said he hopes New Yorkers see themselves reflected in the cathedral’s entrance.
“On a very pedestrian level, it is a wild improvement over what was here before,” Conway told RNS. “I could spend a day looking at that panel. My great-grandparents were immigrants, came over with nothing.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, left, and artist Adam Cvijanovic view a new mural painted by Cvijanovic at its unveiling at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sept. 18, 2025, in New York. (Diane Bondareff/AP Content Services for the Archdiocese of New York)
In response to one of the final questions at the press conference, Dolan emphasized the ambition of the cathedral’s new entrance. “It’s a city, a nation, a world that seems to be tortured by violence and vitriol and misunderstanding and death that’s going on,” he said. “And so, many people have said, ‘Hey, we really needed this, some light on the situation.’”
That light, Salvo said, is also a road map of the immigrant journey in New York.
“We have that gift and that legacy from the generations of the past that lived suffering and made the best out of it,” Salvo told RNS. “Now, we in present generations have the same invitation and responsibility to do the same.”
She came to her ICE check-in backed by an Episcopal bishop and 500 supporters
(RNS) — As immigrants increasingly fear detention at ICE check-ins, many faith groups have doubled down on accompaniment strategies to support them at those appointments.
Blanca Martinez, center, smiles to supporters outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
September 16, 2025
(RNS) — By dinnertime the evening before her U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in appointment, Blanca Martinez knew she probably wasn’t going to sleep much that night.
“It gives me a lot of anxiety,” Martinez said of ICE check-ins during an RNS interview in Spanish, on Monday (Sept. 15). She had experienced a restless night before her Aug. 15 check-in, when she was told to come back a month later, an unusually small window of reprieve.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” said the Salem, Massachusetts, resident, alluding to the possibility of detention at the appointment.
But despite Martinez’s high stress levels, she knew she wouldn’t be alone at the appointment Tuesday. About 500 people came to support her outside the immigration office in Burlington, including Massachusetts state Rep. Manny Cruz, Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo and Bishop Julia Whitworth of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, who skipped the end of a national bishops gathering to support Martinez.
“This is something that we as a diocese take really seriously — that when one in our congregation is under threat, we are all under threat, and that we have the capacity to stand up for one another,” Whitworth said.
Across the country, many faith groups have had longtime practices of accompanying immigrants to ICE check-ins. As the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has ramped up and immigrants increasingly fear detention at the routine appointments, many such groups have doubled down on that strategy, believing they can at the very least provide spiritual support and, in some cases, influence decisions to allow immigrants a stay of removal.
People rally in support of Blanca Martinez outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
Over a decade ago, Martinez arrived at the United States border fleeing from Honduras for her safety, she said. At the time, a Salem attorney noticed as Martinez — a survivor of childhood polio who used crutches to make her way north — was turned away at the border that day and intervened to help make her case for asylum, said the Rev. Nathan Ives, rector of St. Peter’s-San Pedro Episcopal Church in Salem.
After arriving in Salem, Martinez co-founded a cleaning cooperative, began teaching Spanish and became a leader within the Essex County Community Organization. She also became a beloved member of St. Peter’s-San Pedro.
But her immigration case has not gone as well, Ives said. She’s faced denials on appeal in her asylum case, though so far, she’s been granted stays preventing her deportation.
RELATED: ‘There really is no escape’: Faith leaders help immigrants face court as ICE arrests rise
“ It’s just been this long journey of love and caring both emanating from her, and to her from the community,” said Ives, calling Martinez “ just the kind of person you’d want becoming a U.S. citizen, if you ask me.”
Martinez, who was raised in an orphanage, called Ives her “guardian angel,” saying he was her principal support after she had surgery three years ago. The whole parish community provided food and care.
Last month, they showed up again as part of about 300 supporters who accompanied her to the ICE check-in, including clergy “ from everywhere I could imagine — from my diocese, from other dioceses, from other denominations,” Ives said.
On Tuesday, that number swelled to about 500, according to organizers, which included the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Matahari Women Workers Center, LUCE Immigrant Justice Network, Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Essex County Community Organization, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action, Episcopal City Mission and the Welcome Immigrant Network.
Whitworth prayed over Martinez before she entered her appointment: “Envelop your daughter, Blanca, all who will enter this building today, and all who are in need. Envelop them in your steadfast protection, and fill them with your courage and joy.”
Martinez told RNS that Whitworth’s accompaniment “gives me a lot of strength and a lot of hope.”
Whitworth also prayed for all people fearing deportation, and for the country: “We pray, God, for our nation, that it may be restored to its best ideals, that we shy away from violence of all kinds — state-sponsored, politically motivated, hate-filled.”
Bishop Julia Whitworth of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, right, speaks in support of Blanca Martinez, left, outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
The bishop told RNS she was encouraging other religious leaders to stand against Christian nationalism, saying, “As a religious leader, I don’t serve political powers, the principalities of this age. I serve Jesus of Nazareth, who came as a stranger, was oppressed by a state system and taught us and told us to welcome the stranger and to stand with all who suffer.”
She also said she knew that “when people who our country might be seeking to disappear are made visible as having a wide network of support,” there is more attention to how they are treated.
For example, in August, the Episcopal Diocese of New York successfully rallied around the daughter of a diocesan priest, Yeonsoo Go, who was detained at her July 31 immigration court appointment, and then eventually released.
But not every faith-based mass mobilization for an immigrant in danger of deportation works out. In Iowa, faith-based organization Escucha Mi Voz sometimes brings up to 150 supporters to stand outside the Cedar Rapids ICE office every Tuesday during immigrant appointments. They have seen both successes and defeats.
When the Rev. Guillermo Treviño Jr., an Iowa Catholic priest, heard his 20-year-old parishioner Pascual Pedro had been detained at a Wednesday immigration appointment he attended by himself on July 1, Treviño immediately went to the county jail for a prayer vigil. The church community made 1,500 calls to the ICE director, Treviño told reporters at a Sept. 11 Georgetown University event. Within a week, Pedro was deported to Guatemala.
Clergy members rally in support of Blanca Martinez outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
RELATED: Catholic bishops call immigration crackdown a ‘category 4 storm’
But in Burlington, Martinez was able to return to the hundreds waiting outside to tell them it would be a year before she had another appointment: She was granted a one-year stay from removal.
She noted that most immigrants face court appointments without a crowd praying for them outside.
“I want to raise my voice for each of the people who are living with the same situation that I am facing — who don’t have a voice because they don’t have a lawyer or someone to represent them,” Martinez said.
Supporting others and her prayer help sustain Martinez. Even as she waited with anxiety the night before, she said there was something to give thanks for every day.
“From the moment I wake up, I give thanks — for my life, for being able to walk, for being able to get up, for food, for having a roof, for having the whole community that supports me,” she said.
(RNS) — As immigrants increasingly fear detention at ICE check-ins, many faith groups have doubled down on accompaniment strategies to support them at those appointments.
Blanca Martinez, center, smiles to supporters outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
Aleja Hertzler-McCain
September 16, 2025
(RNS) — By dinnertime the evening before her U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in appointment, Blanca Martinez knew she probably wasn’t going to sleep much that night.
“It gives me a lot of anxiety,” Martinez said of ICE check-ins during an RNS interview in Spanish, on Monday (Sept. 15). She had experienced a restless night before her Aug. 15 check-in, when she was told to come back a month later, an unusually small window of reprieve.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” said the Salem, Massachusetts, resident, alluding to the possibility of detention at the appointment.
But despite Martinez’s high stress levels, she knew she wouldn’t be alone at the appointment Tuesday. About 500 people came to support her outside the immigration office in Burlington, including Massachusetts state Rep. Manny Cruz, Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo and Bishop Julia Whitworth of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, who skipped the end of a national bishops gathering to support Martinez.
“This is something that we as a diocese take really seriously — that when one in our congregation is under threat, we are all under threat, and that we have the capacity to stand up for one another,” Whitworth said.
Across the country, many faith groups have had longtime practices of accompanying immigrants to ICE check-ins. As the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has ramped up and immigrants increasingly fear detention at the routine appointments, many such groups have doubled down on that strategy, believing they can at the very least provide spiritual support and, in some cases, influence decisions to allow immigrants a stay of removal.
People rally in support of Blanca Martinez outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
Over a decade ago, Martinez arrived at the United States border fleeing from Honduras for her safety, she said. At the time, a Salem attorney noticed as Martinez — a survivor of childhood polio who used crutches to make her way north — was turned away at the border that day and intervened to help make her case for asylum, said the Rev. Nathan Ives, rector of St. Peter’s-San Pedro Episcopal Church in Salem.
After arriving in Salem, Martinez co-founded a cleaning cooperative, began teaching Spanish and became a leader within the Essex County Community Organization. She also became a beloved member of St. Peter’s-San Pedro.
But her immigration case has not gone as well, Ives said. She’s faced denials on appeal in her asylum case, though so far, she’s been granted stays preventing her deportation.
RELATED: ‘There really is no escape’: Faith leaders help immigrants face court as ICE arrests rise
“ It’s just been this long journey of love and caring both emanating from her, and to her from the community,” said Ives, calling Martinez “ just the kind of person you’d want becoming a U.S. citizen, if you ask me.”
Martinez, who was raised in an orphanage, called Ives her “guardian angel,” saying he was her principal support after she had surgery three years ago. The whole parish community provided food and care.
Last month, they showed up again as part of about 300 supporters who accompanied her to the ICE check-in, including clergy “ from everywhere I could imagine — from my diocese, from other dioceses, from other denominations,” Ives said.
On Tuesday, that number swelled to about 500, according to organizers, which included the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Matahari Women Workers Center, LUCE Immigrant Justice Network, Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Essex County Community Organization, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action, Episcopal City Mission and the Welcome Immigrant Network.
Whitworth prayed over Martinez before she entered her appointment: “Envelop your daughter, Blanca, all who will enter this building today, and all who are in need. Envelop them in your steadfast protection, and fill them with your courage and joy.”
Martinez told RNS that Whitworth’s accompaniment “gives me a lot of strength and a lot of hope.”
Whitworth also prayed for all people fearing deportation, and for the country: “We pray, God, for our nation, that it may be restored to its best ideals, that we shy away from violence of all kinds — state-sponsored, politically motivated, hate-filled.”
Bishop Julia Whitworth of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, right, speaks in support of Blanca Martinez, left, outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
The bishop told RNS she was encouraging other religious leaders to stand against Christian nationalism, saying, “As a religious leader, I don’t serve political powers, the principalities of this age. I serve Jesus of Nazareth, who came as a stranger, was oppressed by a state system and taught us and told us to welcome the stranger and to stand with all who suffer.”
She also said she knew that “when people who our country might be seeking to disappear are made visible as having a wide network of support,” there is more attention to how they are treated.
For example, in August, the Episcopal Diocese of New York successfully rallied around the daughter of a diocesan priest, Yeonsoo Go, who was detained at her July 31 immigration court appointment, and then eventually released.
But not every faith-based mass mobilization for an immigrant in danger of deportation works out. In Iowa, faith-based organization Escucha Mi Voz sometimes brings up to 150 supporters to stand outside the Cedar Rapids ICE office every Tuesday during immigrant appointments. They have seen both successes and defeats.
When the Rev. Guillermo Treviño Jr., an Iowa Catholic priest, heard his 20-year-old parishioner Pascual Pedro had been detained at a Wednesday immigration appointment he attended by himself on July 1, Treviño immediately went to the county jail for a prayer vigil. The church community made 1,500 calls to the ICE director, Treviño told reporters at a Sept. 11 Georgetown University event. Within a week, Pedro was deported to Guatemala.
Clergy members rally in support of Blanca Martinez outside an immigration office, Sept. 16, 2025, in Burlington, Mass. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts)
RELATED: Catholic bishops call immigration crackdown a ‘category 4 storm’
But in Burlington, Martinez was able to return to the hundreds waiting outside to tell them it would be a year before she had another appointment: She was granted a one-year stay from removal.
She noted that most immigrants face court appointments without a crowd praying for them outside.
“I want to raise my voice for each of the people who are living with the same situation that I am facing — who don’t have a voice because they don’t have a lawyer or someone to represent them,” Martinez said.
Supporting others and her prayer help sustain Martinez. Even as she waited with anxiety the night before, she said there was something to give thanks for every day.
“From the moment I wake up, I give thanks — for my life, for being able to walk, for being able to get up, for food, for having a roof, for having the whole community that supports me,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment