A smiling Francis was greeted with a rock concert-like show with blue floodlights illuminating a stage and bandstands and crowds waving yellow handkerchiefs.
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Francis met with President Enrique Pena Nieto at the presidential palace and delivered a tough-love speech to authorities aimed at shaking up the privilege that has long characterized Mexican politics.
The meeting in Havana, Cuba, on Friday between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill was the first between the two church’s leaders.
Mexico is the world’s second most populous Roman Catholic country and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to join the pope on Saturday afternoon in a Mass at Mexico City’s basilica for the country’s patroness, the Virgin of Guadalupe. The sound of mariachis could be heard as his chartered plane pulled to a stop. Kirill is there for an official visit; Francis will fly off later Friday for Mexico, where he will spend five days.
“At last we meet. We are brothers”, said the pope as he met the white-bearded Orthodox leader. “Clearly, this meeting is God’s will”.
The meeting at Jose Marti International airport between Pope Francis and and Patriarchate Kirill represents a step toward alleviating the rift between Eastern and Western Christianity. Critics have warned that Kirill and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are close, will use the Pope to boost their profile among Orthodox Christians and popularity in the West.
“Mindful of the permanence of many obstacles, it is our hope that our meeting may contribute to the re-establishment of this unity willed by God”, they said. Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, said recently that the treatment of Christians by extremists in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions requires “immediate action”.
“In a period like this, during which religion is often a pretext for war, a meeting of the leaders of two such important religions can not be anything but an important sign of peace, and I am very happy”, he said, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
The Catholic Church claims 1.2 billion faithful worldwide. “We talked about a program of possible activities in common”.
“Now things are easier”, Kirill agreed as he and the pope exchanged three kisses on the cheek.
The Popemobile’s convoy briefly stopped when bodyguards tackled a person who had crossed a barrier.
Francis was not scheduled to speak publicly, but before he retired for the night, he approached a crowd of wellwishers, accepting two white roses and invoking an impromptu prayer for those gathered.
“Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all… society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development”, he said. “Let’s put all those we love and all those we don’t love in front of the Lord so that he, with us, blesses them all”.
Mexicans hope the pope will use the visit to push Pena Nieto to fix the nation’s persistent problems, like a prison riot that killed 49 inmates on Thursday or the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.
Pena Nieto and First Lady Angelica River were at the airport to meet the Argentine pope.
The modern press for greater unity between the two sides of Christianity has been going on for more than 100 years, said CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen.
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Pope Francis says his deepest desire for his trip to Mexico is to simply pray before the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
