MEXICO CITY - Thousands thronged the streets of Mexico City Saturday as Pope Francis began a five-day cross-country tour that will highlight the nation's violence, corruption and migration troubles.
Pope Francis waves from the popemobile on his way to the National Palace, in Mexico City on February 13, 2016
A day after adoring crowds welcomed his arrival, Francis left the Vatican ambassador's residence aboard the popemobile on his way to the National Palace for talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The Catholic faithful again lined the streets of the sprawling capital, cheering as the 79-year-old Argentine-born pontiff waved back at them.
"He's our spiritual guide and we hope that he supports us in this difficult moment for our country," said Magdalena Caballero, a 50-year-old government worker whose nephew was kidnapped a few weeks ago. "His presence fills us with hope."
Thousands more awaited his arrival at the historic Zocalo square, which houses the city's cathedral and the ornate National Palace.
The choice of location has symbolic significance as none of the pope's predecessors were ever invited at the palace, even though heads of states are usually greeted there.
While Mexico is the world's second most populous Catholic country after Brazil, governments throughout most of the 20th century were militantly secular and had testy ties with the Church.
But diplomatic relations with the Vatican were restored in 1992.
The pope's presence at the National Palace "closes a cycle," said Mexico's ambassador to the Vatican, Mariano Palacios Alcocer.
The meeting could also give Pena Nieto a breather from the nation's persistent problems, like a prison riot that killed 49 inmates on Thursday or the disappearance of 43 students in 2014.
The palace meeting "offers a study in contrasts" between a popular pope and "an unpopular head of state who faces one setback after another," said Andrew Chesnut, religion professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
"It's the Mexican president, of course, who has the most to gain from basking in the glow of one of the world's most popular figures," Chesnut told AFP.
Hours before arriving in Mexico, Pope Francis took care of another, much older rift by holding a historic meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in Cuba in a bid to end a 1,000-year-old Christian rift.
The two religious leaders called for "unity," while Francis later said they had talked about a possible program of "activities in common."
- Virgin of Guadalupe -
After his meeting with Pena Nieto, the pope will make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a major Catholic shrine.
The basilica houses the image of a dark-skinned Virgin Mary that Catholics believe miraculously became imprinted on a piece of fabric after she appeared before an indigenous peasant in 1531.
"The pope's encounter with Guadalupe will be monumental -- he's strongly Marian and she's not only Queen of Mexico but Empress of the Americas," Chesnut said.
The pope has asked for time alone to pray quietly in front of the image after the mass.
The following days will take the pope to some of Mexico's notoriously poor and violent regions.
"The Mexico of violence, corruption, drug cartels: That's not the Mexico that Our Mother loves," he said days before his visit, referring to the Virgin. "I don't want to cover up any of that."
- Cross-country trip -
The pope has chosen to visit regions affected by many of these problems.
On Sunday, he will lead a massive outdoor mass in Ecatepec, one of the many Mexico City suburbs hit by crime and an epidemic of murders against women.
The next day, he travels to Chiapas, the poorest state in the country, where he will preside over a mass that will be conducted in three indigenous languages and approve a decree allowing native languages at Churches.
On Tuesday, Francis goes to Morelia, the capital of the western state of Michoacan, were farmers formed vigilante forces in 2013 to combat the cult-like Knights Templar drug cartel.
He will cap his trip on Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez, the former murder capital of the world across the border from Texas.
There, he will lead hundreds of thousands in a cross-border mass, with the parents of the 43 missing students expected to be in the crowd.