Many thought that a warm welcome, complete with mariachis and folkloric dance, would not be a pope some as aloof and academic greet. But the world's largest Roman Catholic, Spanish-speaking country, Benedict showed the affection they had for his predecessor, John Paul II, "Mexico's Pope" named after making five trips to the country."This is a proud country of hospitality, and nobody feels like a stranger in your country," the Pope said at the landing wild cheers. "I knew that, now that I see and I feel it in my heart."STORY: Pope heads to Mexico to visit CubaAfter his Alitalia flight landed, the streets of Leon, where the Pope resides was a carnival atmosphere, with whole blocks explode in yellow confetti as he passed in his bulletproof Popemobile along the 20-mile route from the airport."He came to all Mexicans to change," says Maria del Rosario Tamayo Villanueva, who waited for the Pope to see that despite paralyzed in both legs since childhood. "It was important to come to see him. He is a gift from God."From the moment the pope aboard his plane in Rome, he took on the subject of the Mexican drug war violence that more than 47,000 people has slain in the past six years, says it is "humanity and our youth to destroy. "Benedict called on Mexicans to a materialistic culture that nourishes conquer drug trafficking and said the church can be a healing force."The major responsibility of the church is to educate the conscience, moral responsibility to learn and to strip the mask (of) the idolatry of money that enslaves mankind, and unmask the false promise that lie behind ' the drug culture, he said.He urged Cuba, where he faced on Monday, leaving a Marxism that "no longer responds to the reality."Benedict has expressed support for the fight against drug trafficking, Marxism and authoritarianism in Latin America, including during his 2007 trip to Brazil, his first in the region.On Friday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and First Lady Margarita Zavala greeted the pope at the Silao in Guanajuato International Airport and escorted him along a red carpet amid a clatter of church bells.Benedict descended the stairs without the cane he had used when he walked to the plane in Rome, the first time he ran it in public.In a speech asphalt, Benedict referred again to the everyday violence that ordinary Mexicans to confront, saying he was praying for all affected "especially people who suffer because of old and new rivalries, resentment and all forms of violence. "He said he would come to Mexico as a pilgrim of hope, to encourage Mexicans to "transform the current structures and events that are less than satisfactory and seem insurmountable or immovable, while also helping people who do not see or sense a future in life. "Calderon greeted the Pope with the words: "Your visit with joy in moments of great tribulation."Some like 42-year-old housewife Celia del Rosario Escobar said she was hopeful that Benedict would again help in a society devastated by the brutal drug trafficking and violence associated with it."I wish him the conscience of the people who do evil to Mexico with everything involved in drug addiction, changes in the Mafia," Escobar said. "I hope we have more respect for life."Many of the papal trip to Latin America as a way for the believers in a region where Catholicism has declined in recent decades to strengthen, but not as dramatic as in Europe and elsewhere."One sees in Latin America and elsewhere, not a few Catholics that a schizophrenia between individual and public morality," the pope said earlier the plane. "These people are Catholics, believers, but in their public life they follow other paths that do not correspond to large values of the Gospel ... so we need not only in individual morality, but the public morality to learn."Benedict acknowledged the historical character of John Paul's first trip to Mexico - the first by a pope. The 1979 visit, just months after he was elected pope and his first trip abroad, came at a time when Mexico's anti-religion laws were so restrictive that John Paul technically was violating the law by wearing religious clothing in public .John Paul also made a historic visit to Cuba in 1998, where upon arrival in Havana, he spoke 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 that words stay true even today, and that John Paul's visit was a path of "cooperation and constructive dialogue" in Cuba who still, albeit slowly launched.In Mexico, Benedict said, violence is destroying the nation's young.It is a message that Enrique Abundes, one of the thousands along the papal route, was waiting to hear. The 46-year-old shoe-factory worker and father of five children, Benedict said he believed would inspire Mexicans to keep their children away from the temptations of organized crime."The Pope's visit to our city will draw attention to the violence and, for us, for good examples to our children," he said.The multi-day trip to Mexico and Cuba, Benedict's first two countries, a test of endurance for the pope, who is 85 next month. At the airport on Friday in Rome, the pope used a stick, apparently for the first time in public, as he walked about 100 meters to the aircraft steps.Papal assistants, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Benedict is using the stick in private for about two months, because it makes him feel more secure, because a medical reason. Last fall, Benedict launched a mobile platform to the vast space of the basilica of St. Peter's navigation during ceremonies. The Vatican has said that the device was used to help the Pope to save his energy.Many businesses and schools closed for the day, Leon, and thousands of people were traveling in a bus from across the country. But the city was not at full capacity.Approximately 30 percent of the town of 6,000 rooms were empty, Fabiola said Vera, president of the Association of hotels and motels of Leon. She said people would be discouraged by rumors that there are not enough rooms.The main site in Leon, intended for tens of thousands of pilgrims, was empty earlier in the day.Church officials said that as many as 300,000 people were expected for Sunday's Mass"We greeted him with great affection and love, because he is the messenger of peace," said Antonio Alcaraz, 40, director of a public school. "His visit through his message, our social problems."
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