Pope to meet Calderon, children in Mexico

Pope Benedict XVI, who has received a warm welcome in Mexico, was expected to develop messages for religious freedom and peace in the face of raging drug violence during his weekend visit.

The 84-year-old pope, on his first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America, celebrated a private mass Saturday before he was to meet with President Felipe Calderon and Mexican children in the central, colonial city of Guanajuato.

"He slept well and is working on his speech," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, ahead of a vast Sunday mass beneath a towering statue of Christ the King in Silao, in the highly Catholic Guanajuato state.

Saturday's meetings will place at the state government house, or Casa del Conde Rul, and include the Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.

Crowds of cheering, flag-waving faithful welcomed the pontiff Friday as he made the 20-mile (34-kilometer) journey to the city of Leon in the Popemobile, with some paying the ultimate compliment with cries of: "Brother Benedict, now you're Mexican."

In only his second trip to the world's most Catholic continent, the pope is in Mexico before traveling to communist Cuba on Monday, in a visit inevitably overshadowed by his charismatic, globe-trotting predecessor John Paul II.

On his arrival in Mexico, Benedict said he would pray "particularly for those who suffer... all forms of violence," with expectations high for a strong message of peace amid a wave of drug violence that has left some 50,000 dead in five years.

He also called for efforts "to fight this evil which destroys our young," referring to drug gang culture, in comments on the journey to Mexico.

Mexican authorities promised maximum security during the visit, with some 5,400 security forces deployed, while the archbishop of Leon even called on local drug gangs to call a truce.

Benedict comes to a Mexican church facing challenges including legalized abortion and gay marriage in the Mexican capital and a drop in Catholic numbers in the world's second-largest Catholic nation -- still with 84 percent of the population baptized.

Although he did not address particular challenges to the church, Benedict called for respect for human dignity.

"This dignity is expressed especially in the fundamental right to freedom of religion, in its full meaning and integrity," he said in Mexico.

The visit comes amid debate over new legislation, which Calderon's government is backing, to end restrictions on religious ceremonies in public places and a ban on religious involvement in politics.

The pontiff is visiting a symbolic region where a Catholic rebellion in the 1920s saw the faithful take up arms against laws that stripped the church of power, and a stronghold of Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN).

Some have criticized the apparent political context of the visit, which comes a week before the start of campaigning for July 1 general elections.

The visit also coincides with the release of a new book of revelations about a clerical abuse scandal concerning Mexico's most notorious offender, Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ order who died in 2008.

Mexican victims of the sexual abuse were disappointed the pope had no plans to meet them.

In Cuba, Benedict XVI will also seek to follow in the footsteps of John Paul II, who was credited with strengthening the church's relationship to the state and urging the communist island to open up, though it remains highly isolated.

Benedict said that Marxism "no longer corresponds to reality" and called for "new models" amid so far timid changes in the communist regime, on the journey to Mexico.

Cuba's Catholic community -- which makes up around 10 percent of the population -- is willing "to help create a constructive dialogue to avoid traumas," he said.

Dissidents have held a series of protests aimed at pressuring the pope into tackling the government on rights.

Benedict hopes to encourage religious fervor after more than 40 years of official atheism ended in the early 1990s, and a big turnout is expected among Catholics at masses on the island.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-meet-calderon-first-full-day-mexico-055734820.html

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