Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on Sunday as Pope Francis began what was expected to be the biggest event of his five-day trip to Mexico: a Mass in the capital's crime-ridden suburb of Ecatepec, where drug violence, gangland-style killings and kidnappings are a daily fact of life.
The Mexican bishops' conference said some 300,000 tickets had been handed out and an estimated two million people were expected to line the pope's motorcade route to the huge field where the liturgy was taking place.
Pope Francis was bringing a message of encouragement to residents of an area where the murder rate, particularly of women, was so high that last year the government issued a special alert. With a population of some 1.6 million, Ecatepec is a sprawling carpet of cinderblock slums mixed in with some better-off neighborhoods that is a strategic point for drug gangs that thrive amid poverty, unemployment and impunity.
As a morning chill turned to a brilliant, warm day, pilgrims on foot and clad in white lined the streets leading to the field, throwing flower petals as the pope passed by and waving pom-poms in the yellow and white colors of the Vatican flag. Vendors sold T-shirts,...
