Watch CBS News

LA Girl's Encounter With Pope Not Random

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) – A Los Angeles girl's seemingly random encounter with Pope Francis in Washington, D.C. on Thursday was apparently not a spontaneous act.

Sophie Cruz's encounter with the pontiff was planned by a coalition of immigrant rights groups based in Downtown Los Angeles. According to the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, it spent nearly a year planning for the five-year-old girl's brush with the Holy Father.

"We planned to do this from the moment we learned he was coming to the States," Juan Jose Gutierrez of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition.

Cruz was lifted over the barrier before she busted through security and ran toward the pope mobile, where it stopped. Security then lifted her up so the pontiff could bless her.

Cruz had delivered a letter saying she was afraid that her undocumented parents could be deported.

"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 in legalizing my parents because every day I am scared that they will take them away from me," the girl read her letter.

"I don't think she was being used. She was simply told to express what she felt. And she was already feeling that," said Peter Gomez of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. He said children can be more effective at bringing attention to issues than adults.

"I think the innocence of a child says it all. In other words, it's pure, unadulterated," Gomez said. "They're not Republicans or Democrats or whatever. They don't even know what that is."

On Friday, the girl returned home to L.A., where she was surrounded by camera crews.

Cruz and her family attended "Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church" in Downtown L.A., where they are expected to attend a special service this weekend.

If she had not been successful in Washington, the group said it had plans to try in New York and then Philadelphia, Gutierrez said.

The same group orchestrated an equally successful effort in Rome last year with 10-year-old Jersey Vargas, who pleaded with Pope Francis to urge President Barack Obama to free her immigrant father from a detention center.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.