Pope arrives in Mexico, denouncing violence

(AP) SILAO, Mexico - Pope Benedict XVI began a pilgrimage to the New World on Friday calling on Mexicans to conquer an "idolatry of money" that feeds drug violence and urging Cuba to leave behind a Marxism that "no longer responds to reality."

Mexican President Felipe Calderon and first lady Margarita Zavala greeted the pope at the Guanajuato International Airport in Silao and escorted him along a red carpet amid a clanging of church bells and cheers from a crowd waving Vatican flags.

"Benedict, brother, you are now Mexican," people shouted in a warm welcome, complete with folkloric dance and mariachis, to a pope some consider distant and academic compared to his predecessor John Paul II, who was dubbed "Mexico's pope" after making five trips to the country.

Benedict descended the stairs without the cane he had used when he walked to the plane in Rome, the first time he had walked with it in public.

"This is a proud country of hospitality and nobody feels like a stranger in your land. I knew that, now I see it and now I feel it in my heart," the pope said to wild cheers.

In a tarmac speech, Benedict referred again to the everyday violence that ordinary Mexicans confront, saying he was praying for all in need "particularly those who suffer because of old and new rivalries, resentments and all forms of violence."

Pope uses cane at airport before heading west

He said he was coming to Mexico as a pilgrim of hope, to encourage Mexicans to "transform the present structures and events which are less than satisfactory and seem immovable or insurmountable while also helping those who do not see meaning or a future in life."

After his Alitalia flight landed, the streets of nearby Leon, where the pope will stay, took on a carnival atmosphere, with thousands lining the 20-mile (32-kilomter) route that Benedict traveled from the airport in the Popemobile. Some blocks exploded in yellow confetti as he passed.

"Mexico is standing because we're a country that perseveres with hope and solidarity, we're a people with values and principals that believe in family, liberty, justice and democracy," Calderon said in a speech on the tarmac to cheers of "Viva!" from the crowd. "Your visit fills us with joy in moments of great tribulation."

Many see his Latin America trip as a way to strengthen the faithful in a region where Catholicism has dropped over the decades, though not as dramatically as in Europe and elsewhere.

"One sees in Latin America and also elsewhere, not a few Catholics who have a schizophrenia between individual and public morality," the pope said earlier on the plane. "These individuals are Catholic, believers, but in their public lives they follow other paths that don't correspond to the great values of the Gospel that are necessary to the foundation of a just society."

Mentions of Pope John Paul II by the president and Benedict brought more cheers.

Benedict acknowledged the historic nature of John Paul's first trip to Mexico — the first by any pope. The 1979 visit, just months after being elected pope and his first foreign trip, came at a time in which Mexico's anti-religion laws were so restrictive that John Paul was technically breaking the law by wearing clerical garb in public.

John Paul also made a historic visit to Cuba in 1998, where upon his arrival in Havana he pronounced the now-famous words: "May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba."

Benedict told reporters those words remain true even today, and that John Paul's visit had launched a path of "collaboration and constructive dialogue" that continues, albeit slowly.

On Monday, Benedict will head for Cuba. He said it is "evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality," and he urged Cubans to "find new models, with patience, and in a constructive way."

The comment about Marxism, in response to questions from a journalist, was as blunt as anything from his predecessor, John Paul II, though the earlier pope is widely credited with helping bring down socialism in eastern Europe.

Benedict cautioned that "this process requires patience and also decisiveness."

In Mexico, Benedict said, violence is destroying the nation's young.

The "great responsibility of the church is to educate the conscience, teach moral responsibility and strip off the mask (from) the idolatry of money that enslaves mankind, and unmask the false promise, this lie that is behind" the drug culture, he said.

It is a message that Enrique Abundes, one of thousands lining the papal route, was waiting to hear. The 46-year-old shoe-factory worker and father of five said he believed Benedict would inspire Mexicans to keep their children away from the temptations of organized crime.

"The pope's visit to our city will call attention to the violence and, for us, to be good examples to our children," he said.

The weeklong trip to Mexico and Cuba, Benedict's first to both countries, will be a test of stamina for the pope, who turns 85 next month. At the airport on Friday in Rome, the pope used a cane, apparently for the first time in public, as he walked about 100 yards (meters) to the airliner's steps.

Papal aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Benedict has been using the cane in private for about two months because it makes him feel more secure, not for any medical reason. Last fall, Benedict started using a wheeled platform to navigate the vast spaces of St. Peter's Basilica during ceremonies. The Vatican has said that device was employed to help the pope save his energy.

John Paul II was just 58 when he made the first of five visits to Mexico, where he is literally venerated by many Mexican Catholics.

The pope's plane set down Friday afternoon in Guanajuato, a deeply conservative state in sun-baked central Mexico, and his route into the city of Leon was thronged with thousands of people eager to get a glimpse of the pontiff.

Maria Jesus Caudillo, a stationery story owner in Leon, found a spot early on the Popemobile route with her four nieces and nephews.

"John Paul came to Mexico but never to Leon and never this pope," she said. "It's a miracle that in all the country, he chose to come to Leon."

Volunteers led the crowds in chants of "Benedicto! Benedicto!" as passing drivers pounded their horns in encouragement. Vendors sold Benedict buttons, T-shirts, Vatican flags and key chains with the image of the pope and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

By mid-afternoon, many spectators sought refuge from the hot sun under trees on the roadside, fanning themselves or even falling asleep.

Vendors complained about small crowds and lack of sales.

"We thought there would be more people," said Agustin Rodriguez, a 55-year old fruit seller.

Jorge Alfredo, a 15-year-old delivery boy, rolled his bicycle down the sidewalk past drowsy spectators and said he wouldn't be waiting around to see Benedict. None of his friends would be coming either, he said.

"They prefer the other pope," he said.

Many businesses and schools had closed for the day in Leon, and thousands of people were traveling in on buses from across the country.

Still about 30 percent of the city's 6,000 hotel rooms were still empty, said Fabiola Vera, president of the Association of Hotels and Motels of Leon. She said people may have been discouraged by rumors that there weren't enough rooms.

The main campground in Leon, meant for tens of thousands of pilgrims, remained empty. The only evidence of preparations early Friday were about a dozen portable toilets, a single police patrol and a group of three men and a woman putting up a tent to sell T-shirts and photos of Benedict.

Church officials say as many as 300,000 people are expected for Sunday's Mass and Carlos Aguiar, president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference, said he expected the faithful to begin arriving later Friday.

Benedict is visiting a church battling to overcome painful setbacks that include legalized abortion and gay marriage in the capital of the most populous Catholic country in the Spanish-speaking world.

Guanajuato's constitution declares that life begins at conception and bars abortion with extremely limited exceptions. Seven women were jailed there in 2010 for the deaths of their newborns and later released. The women said they had miscarriages, not abortions.

Benedict's church is encouraging more such laws across Mexico, and a measure before Congress would strip away many of the remaining restrictions on religion that were imposed during conflicts more than a century ago.

Church leaders also are trying to overcome a scandal over the most influential Mexican figure in the church.

The Rev. Marcial Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ order, which John Paul II praised as a model of rectitude. But a series of investigations forced the order to acknowledge in 2010 that Maciel had sexually abused seminarians and fathered three children. Church documents released in a book this week reveal the Vatican had been told of Maciel's drug abuse and pederasty decades ago.