Pope Francis kicked off his first trip to Mexico on Saturday with a long pope mobile ride past cheering crowds on a day that will star...
Cheers erupted as Francis' pope mobile pulled out of the residence where he was staying, and he abruptly stopped to greet elderly, sick and disabled people who had gathered outside. He handed out rosaries to faithful in wheelchairs and embraced a young boy wearing a surgical mask.
As he flew toward Mexico City, Francis said his "most intimate desire" is to pray before the dark-skinned Madonna. She is the patron saint of Mexico and "empress of the Americas," and millions of pilgrims flock each year to pray before the cloak that bears her image.
Francis arrived in Mexico's capital to adoring crowds waving yellow handkerchiefs. Mariachis serenaded as his chartered plane pulled to a stop
"In Mexico there are a lot of economic and security problems, there is a lot of egoism, and he comes with a message of peace and hope that we need."
On Saturday, Francis meets with Mexican officials and foreign ambassadors at the National Palace. The speech, which is a fixture of every papal trip, is usually the pope's most political message, and Francis is expected to touch on some of the grave problems facing Mexico stemming from drug violence, migration and poverty.
The pope also will speak to Mexico's bishops at the Cathedral of the Assumption. He is expected to urge them to be close to their people and accompany them through their hardships, amid criticism even from within the Mexican clergy that many in the church here are often highly deferential to the wealthy and powerful.
Francis wraps up his day with a Mass at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe and a silent prayer before the icon.
The Mexico trip follows a brief but historic meeting in Havana on Friday, when Francis embraced Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and with an exclamation of "finally," took a momentous step toward closing a nearly 1,000-year schism in Christianity.
Francis tweeted that the meeting was a "gift from God."
Francis and Kirill also called for political leaders to act on the single most important issue of shared concern between the Catholic and Orthodox churches today: the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria who are being killed and driven from their homes by the Islamic State group.
Later aboard his plane, Francis said the declaration was not a political statement, but rather a pastoral one.
