During his private encounter with President Enrique Pena Nieto gifts were exchanged, the two men conversed and the Pope was introduced to top representatives of the Mexican Government.
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Pope Francis is telling Mexico’s political leaders that they have a duty to provide their people with security, “true justice” and basic services as he plunges head-on into the topic of drug-inspired violence, corruption and social ills that afflict the country.
“Each time that we seek for the path of privileges for the benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trafficking, exclusion, violence, including human trafficking, kidnapping and death”, he said.
Noting the political and social significance of the cities the pope has elected to visit, he added, “I think there should be at least some strong messages regarding the inequality in Mexican society or the difference in development in those areas and the violence that’s been [happening] in Michoacan or Guerrero”.
Mexico was reminded of its troubles on the eve of the pope’s arrival, when 49 inmates were killed in a prison brawl between rival groups in the north of the country.
Thousands of Catholics gathered in the historic Zocalo square on Saturday to welcome the Argentine pontiff as he waved from his popemobile.
Ana Yeli Perez, legal adviser at the National Citizen Observatory of Feminicides, said the organization is “concerned about the lack of visibility of the issue because the government controls it. We hope the pope speaks about it”.
Pope Francis celebrates Mass at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, where her image is displayed behind, in Mexico City, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.
Pope Francis has chosen to visit some of Mexico’s most troubled regions duing his five-day trip to the world’s second most populous Catholic country.
It will be the pope’s first time at the basilica. “This reflects the good relation between the Holy See and Mexico”, Pena Nieto said.
Speaking to the president and government officials, the pope insisted that, like Mary, who took on the traits of Mexico’s indigenous peoples in a sign of respect, Mexico’s leaders must value the multicultural makeup of its people.
“The pope comes to Mexico at a very ugly moment”, Tellez said, “and he comes to pray for us and for all those who lost hope and have submerged the country in blood and violence”. He is the third Pope to visit the nation: St. John Paul II visited Mexico five times over the course of his 27 year pontificate, and Benedict XVI in 2012.
“We don’t agree that the invitation came from the government”, Sosa said.
Francis spent most of Friday on a plane to Havana, where he held an historic meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, the first-ever meeting between two leaders of those churches.
As he flew toward Mexico City, Francis said his “most intimate desire” is to pray before the dark-skinned Madonna.
After his meeting with Pena Nieto, the pope will make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a major Catholic shrine.
According to tradition, the Virgin appeared before the Indian peasant Juan Diego in 1531 at Tepeyac, a hillside near Mexico City where Aztecs worshipped a mother-goddess, and her image was miraculously imprinted on his cloak.
The Mass is to take place at an outdoor field with an estimated capacity of 400,000, and the pope’s choice of Ecatepec for what figures to be his biggest event in Mexico says volumes about his priorities.
The next day, he travels to Chiapas, the poorest state in the country, where he will preside over a mass in three indigenous languages and approve a decree allowing native languages at Churches.
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He will cap his trip on Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez, the former murder capital of the world across from Texas, where he will lead a huge cross-border mass.
