Pope Benedict XVI in Mexico and Cuba

Mexican crowd welcomes Pope by cheering: 'Benedict our brother, you're Mexican' romereports

Mexico: Security tight on eve of Pope's arrival

SILAO, GUANAJUATO (Khou.com) - Busloads of federal police swarmed Silao, Guanjuato, the first stop for Pope Benedict XVI who arrives in Mexico Friday.

The Pope is scheduled to touch down Friday afternoon (5:30 p.m. Central) for a four-day visit. Ahead of his visit Mexico has mobilized a massive security force that includes more than 13,000 federal, state and local police officers as well as soldiers.

“They’ll have automatic weapons, etc. and I don’t want to be around there at all, “ said Bill Kerchner, an American on vacation in San Miguel de Allende, about 75 miles from Leon and the two other cities the Pope will visit during a four-day trip to Mexico.

Americans sitting in front of San Miguel de Allende’s pink stone church were relieved they did not have to cope with tight security or crowds since this city is not on the Pope’s route.

Pope Benedict XVI chose the deeply Catholic, conservative state of Guanajuato for his first visit to Mexico.

Anticipation builds as Mexican Catholics await Pope Benedict

Ricardo Sheffield, mayor of Leon, receives the newspaper Benedictus, dedicated to the Pope's visit (Source: CNA)

LEON, MEXICO Catholic News Agency  - Just one day before Pope Benedict's arrival in Leon, Mexico, Catholics are counting down the final hours until the Pope makes his first historic visit to the country from March 23-26.

Patricia Eugenia Cruz, a local mother of two, told CNA that she awaits the Pope’s arrival “with great happiness” and hopes he “brings a message of peace and hope to all Mexicans, and also especially a message of charity.”

Pope Benedict will arrive at Guanajuato International Airport in the area of Silao, on Friday, March 23 at 4:30 p.m. where he will be received by the Archbishop of Leon, Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago.

Also present for the reception of the Pope will be the Apostolic Nuncio in Mexico, Msgr. Christophe Pierre, and the Federal President of the Republic of Mexico, Felipe Calderon.

Catholic Felipe Martinez, who spoke to CNA outside the Cathedral of Leon, said that “with the Pope’s visit, I hope that values will be renewed, that the Pope will newly give us these values so needed not only by Mexico but all of Latin America.”

Statistics for the Catholic Church in Mexico and Cuba

Photo Source: thedialog

Vatican City, 21 March 2012 (VIS) - Benedict XVI is due to make an apostolic trip to Mexico and Cuba from 23 to 29 March, to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the independence of Mexico, and the four hundredth of the discovery of the image of "Nuestra Senora de la Caridad del Cobre" in Cuba. For the occasion statistics have been published concerning the Catholic Church in those two countries. The information, updated to 31 December 2010, comes from the Central Statistical Office of the Church.

Mexico has a surface area of 1,958,201 square kilometres and a population of 108,426,000, of whom 99,635,000 (91.89 percent) are Catholic. There are 93 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 6,744 parishes and 7,169 pastoral centres of other kinds. Currently, there are 163 bishops, 16,234 priests, 30,023 religious, 505 members of secular institutes, 25,846 lay missionaries and 295,462 catechists. Minor seminarians number 4,524 and major seminarians 6,495.

A total of 1,856,735 students attend 8,991 centres of Catholic education of all levels and 1,822 special education centres. Other institutions belonging to the Church or run by priests or religious in Mexico include 257 hospitals, 1,602 clinics, 8 leper colonies, 372 homes for the elderly or disabled, 329 orphanages and nurseries, 2,134 family counselling centres and other pro-life centres, and 340 institutions of other kinds.

Cuba has a surface area of 110,861 square kilometres and a population of 11,242,000, of whom 6,766,000 (60.19 percent) are Catholic. There are 11 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 304 parishes and 2,210 pastoral centres of other kinds. Currently, there are 17 bishops, 361 priests, 656 religious, 24 members of secular institutes, 2,122 lay missionaries and 4,133 catechists. Minor seminarians number 13 and major seminarians 78.

A total of 1,113 students attend 12 centres of Catholic education of all levels and 10 special education centres. Other institutions belonging to the Church or run by priests or religious in Cuba include 2 clinics, 1 leper colony, 8 homes for the elderly or disabled, 3 orphanages and nurseries, and 3 institutions of other kinds.