 "Pope opens Mexico visit after historic stop with Patriarch")
Pope Francis kicks off his first trip to Mexico today with speeches to the country's political and ecclesial elites, riding in on the success of his historic meeting in Cuba with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
During a three-hour stop in Havana on Friday, Francis embraced Patriarch Kirill and with an exclamation of "finally" took a momentous step toward closing a nearly 1,000-year schism in Christianity.
The two religious leaders signed a 30-point joint declaration of religious unity that committed their churches to overcoming their differences. Francis tweeted that the meeting was a "gift from God."
"In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities," the declaration said.
Later aboard his plane, Francis said the declaration was not a political statement, but rather a pastoral one. It came from "two bishops who met and discussed their pastoral concerns," he said.
The focus quickly shifted to Francis' five-day Mexico visit, which 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.
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.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, suffering the lowest approval ratings of a Mexican leader in a quarter century, and his wife met Francis on a red carpet.
Onlookers roared as the three walked together, then the lights dimmed and the crowd waved lights as the official song composed for Francis' visit played. Men in broad sombreros and women in flowing red skirts danced on the tarmac.
During a three-hour stop in Havana on Friday, Francis embraced Patriarch Kirill and with an exclamation of "finally" took a momentous step toward closing a nearly 1,000-year schism in Christianity.
The two religious leaders signed a 30-point joint declaration of religious unity that committed their churches to overcoming their differences. Francis tweeted that the meeting was a "gift from God."
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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.
"In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities," the declaration said.
Later aboard his plane, Francis said the declaration was not a political statement, but rather a pastoral one. It came from "two bishops who met and discussed their pastoral concerns," he said.
The focus quickly shifted to Francis' five-day Mexico visit, which 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.
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.
President Enrique Pena Nieto, suffering the lowest approval ratings of a Mexican leader in a quarter century, and his wife met Francis on a red carpet.
Onlookers roared as the three walked together, then the lights dimmed and the crowd waved lights as the official song composed for Francis' visit played. Men in broad sombreros and women in flowing red skirts danced on the tarmac.