Pope urges Mexican youth to resist lure of easy drug money

MORELIA, Mexico -- Pope Francis urged Mexico's young people to resist the lure of easy money from drug dealers and instead value themselves as the wealth of their country during a visit Tuesday to the heartland of Mexico's narcotics trade.

Francis brought a message of hope to Mexico's next generation during a youth pep rally in Morelia, capital of Michoacan state, a major methamphetamine production hub and drug-trafficking route. It was by far the most colorful event of his visit to Mexico, featuring butterfly-winged dancers and mariachi bands -- and a crowd so enthusiastic, Francis nearly got pulled over by people grabbing at him.

Improvising at times from his text, Francis told the crowd he understood for young Mexicans it was difficult to feel their worth "when you are continually exposed to the loss of friends or relatives at the hands of the drug trade, of drugs themselves, of criminal organizations that sow terror."

But, he insisted: "You are the wealth of Mexico."

And he said by following Christ, they would find the strength to say "it is a lie to believe that the only way to live, or to be young, is to entrust oneself to drug dealers or others who do nothing but sow destruction and death."

Pope Francis pauses to pray before Our Lady of Health, "Nuestra Senora de la Salud," after Mass.Rebecca Blackwell ~ Associated Press

Francis offered a similar appeal to Mexican priests and nuns during a Mass earlier in the day in a Morelia stadium. There, he told the country's clerics they must fight injustice and not resign themselves to the drug-fueled violence and corruption around them.

"What temptation can come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug trafficking, disregard for human dignity and indifference in the face of suffering and vulnerability? What temptation might we suffer over and over again when faced with this reality, which seems to have become a permanent system?" Francis asked.

"I think we can sum it up in one word: resignation."

It was a clear reference to the situation in Michoacan and the nation at large, where gangs and drug lords have thrived, thanks in part to the complicity of police and other public authorities.

That corruption came to light most recently in the case of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped for a second time from a maximum security prison in July and was recaptured after an October meeting with actor Sean Penn.

While Francis gave a message of hope to residents of Morelia, his visit was also a symbolic vote of confidence for the city's archbishop, Alberto Suarez Inda.

Like Francis, Suarez Inda has called for Mexican bishops to be closer to their people and not act like bureaucrats or princes. Last year, Francis made him a cardinal -- an unambiguous sign Francis wants "peripheral" pastors such as Suarez Inda at the helm of the church hierarchy.

Since beginning his Mexico trip Friday night, Francis has taken to task the Mexican church leadership, many of whom are linked to Mexico's political and financial elite and are loath to speak out on behalf of the poor and victims of social injustice.

"Sometimes the violence has made us give up, either out of discouragement, habit or fear," said Fausto Mendez, a 23-year-old seminarian who attended Tuesday's Mass. "That's why the pope comes to tell us not to be afraid to do the right thing."

On Saturday in Mexico City, Francis scolded what he called gossiping, career-minded and aloof clerics, and admonished them to stand by their flock and offer "prophetic courage" in facing down the drug trade. In an inscription in a seminary guestbook, he urged future priests to be pastors of God and not "clerics of the state."

"Although on Saturday he spoke strongly to the bishops, it was also directed at us," said Uriel Perez, 20-year-old seminarian at Tuesday's Mass. "Because the pope is demanding, and he wants us to be prepared and on the streets shoulder-to-shoulder with our flock."

Priests also have been victims of violence. Since 1988, 38 priests have been killed and two are missing, according to the Catholic Multimedia Center, which tracks violence against religious people in Mexico. Twenty-eight were killed since 2006.

Suarez Inda clearly backs Francis' program.

In 2013, at what was perhaps the height of the violence in Michoacan, he led eight other bishops in signing an outspoken letter accusing government authorities of "complicity, forced or willing," with criminal gangs. It urged priests to "do whatever is in your power" to help people in an atmosphere of kidnappings, killings and extortion and to "carry out concrete actions in favor of peace and reconciliation."

Much of Michoacan is part of a region called Tierra Caliente, or the Hot Lands, known for both its blistering temperatures and brutal tactics by gangsters eager to control lucrative drug-production territory and smuggling routes.

By 2013, the pseudo-religious Knights Templar cartel was widely kidnapping and extorting money and dominating the state's economic and political scene, so much so that local farmers took up arms against them. But the uprising by the vigilante-style "self-defense" forces brought little peace to the state, with the groups fighting among themselves even as new criminal gangs sprang up or tried to muscle their way into Michoacan.

"I'm excited about the pope's visit, but the reality is that people are afraid. Right now there is a festive atmosphere and a lot of police, but in the day-to-day it's not that calm. Crime has risen," said Yulisa Duran, an 18-year-old nursing student sitting with her boyfriend in Morelia's main square.

Francis wraps up his five-day visit on Wednesday by traveling to Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, for a cross-border Mass expected to focus heavily on the plight of migrants.