A Texas nun who advocates for immigrants is making an surprising journey to Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral a decade after the pontiff singled her out for reward throughout a 2015 ABC Information occasion.
Sister Norma Pimentel has been the face of immigrant advocacy in South Texas for greater than a decade, overseeing the Rio Grande Valley in her position as government director of Catholic Charities.
Watch ABC Information reside protection of the funeral for Pope Francis on Saturday beginning at 3:30 a.m. ET on ABC stations and streaming on ABC Information Dwell, Disney+ and Hulu.
On this Feb. 26, 2020, file photograph, Sister Norma Pimentel, government director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, poses for a portrait whereas visiting Shaughnessy Household Heart at Laboure in South Boston.
Boston Globe by way of Getty Pictures, FILE
Talking to ABC Information on Thursday, Pimentel recalled her work with migrant households in 2014 when she helped Border Patrol reply to massive teams of households arriving in poor situations, largely from El Salvador. She highlighted the neighborhood’s response at Sacred Coronary heart Parish Corridor and mentioned the affect of Pope Francis’ help.
“I visited Rome and wrote him letters and he despatched a video message,” Pimentel informed ABC Information. “After that, I used to be invited to the Vatican a few occasions to talk and I met the Holy Father as properly.”
Pimentel famous the pope’s private connection to migrants’ struggles and his fixed push for empathy when coping with refugees.
Her response to the 2014 inflow is what caught the pope’s eye — and he singled her out throughout a 2015 ABC News virtual audience to reward her work.
“I wish to thanks,” the pope mentioned by way of an interpreter. “And thru you to thank all of the sisters of non secular orders within the U.S. for the work that you’ve carried out and that you simply do in america. It is nice. I congratulate you. Be brave. Transfer ahead.”
From that second on, the 2 stayed in contact and she or he was invited to go to the Vatican a number of occasions.
Sister Norma Pimental is proven throughout an interview with ABC Information.
ABC Information
Pimentel pointed to Pope Francis’ household historical past — the son of Italian residents who immigrated to Argentina.
“He linked with immigrants,” Pimentel mentioned.
Not lengthy after being elected because the chief of the Catholic Church in 2013, Pope Francis visited Lampedusa, Italy, alongside the harmful route many migrants traveled to succeed in Europe.
Throughout his go to, he met with migrants and condemned the “globalization of indifference.” He urged the world to acknowledge these people as folks and human beings, not merely as refugees.
The pontiff additionally acknowledged Pimentel’s work with immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, the place she helped present shelter, meals and luxury to 1000’s of migrants in disaster.
Pimentel acknowledged her disappointment and grief on the pope’s passing, noting that she unexpectedly acquired the prospect to attend his funeral on Saturday. Inside 12 hours of his dying on Monday, a stranger referred to as her workplace and requested to sponsor her journey to the ceremony. A journalist that traveled with the pope has additionally supplied her a spot to remain.
“So, I am going representing all of us. You understand, I am going as a result of I wish to be there as considered one of us that’s going to be subsequent to him on this second,” she mentioned. “And so I convey all of the love and the tears of everyone from the (Rio Grande Valley) from right here, from the valley.”
