'The world loves you': Mariachis and Mexico's faithful welcome Francis
World
‘The world loves you’: Mariachis and Mexico’s faithful welcome Francis
Mexico greeted Pope Francis late Friday with mariachi music and throngs of Catholic faithful lining the streets just hours after he held historic talks with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Cuba. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto welcomed Francis at the airport, as men in broad sombreros and women in flowing red skirts danced on the tarmac. Francis climbed into the Popemobile to wave at crowds across the capital of the world’s second largest Catholic country. "Francis, brother of the Mexican people" the crowd chanted as an estimated 300,000 people braved the evening cold, holding up telephones to light his way.
Francis, friend, the whole world loves you.
Chant from Mexican crowd
Francis begins his visit by meeting 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. His trip also will include a very personal prayer before the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine, the largest and most important Marian shrine in the world and one that is particularly important to the first Latin American pope.
