A five-year-old girl has become one of the few mortals with whom the Pope has held congress on his trip to the U.S. this week.
A video of the incident shows Sophie Cruz breaking free of a police barrier during the Pope Francis’ slow crawl in front of the White House on Wednesday. A security officer scoops her up and presents her to the pope, who kisses her on the cheek.
The daughter of two undocumented immigrants, Sophie gave the pope a hand-colored drawing that read, “My friends and I love each other no matter our skin color.” The gift was meant as a way to gain attention to the plight of people like her parents, whom she fears will be deported.
When a reporter asked what she was hoping would come of her audience with the Pope, Sophie said that she hoped it would put a spotlight on the need for immigration policy reform in the U.S.
“Pope Francis, I want to tell you that my heart is sad and I would like to ask you to speak with the president and the Congress and legalizing my parents because every day I am scared that one day they will take them away from me.”
This isn’t the first time that activists have used children as heralds to gain attention for a cause. In 2014, animal activists helped a 13-year-old girl jump a police barricade at New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to protest a float built by SeaWorld. And last June, the same group that organized Sophie’s run to the Pope, La Hermandad, was inspired by a similar plan in Rome.
The Pope, of anyone, should know to listen to words that come out of the mouths of babes.