Pope Francis is set to face on his February 12-18 Mexico trip many of the ills he has been fighting since he was Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.
In pitting the Church against the power of 'narcos' drug lords and addressing the woes of migrant dramas, Francis will tackle some of the multiple scourges afflicting the wounded giant of Latin America.
The closely watched trip, his first official visit to Mexico, will also be historic because of a stopover meeting at Havana airport with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in a further step towards healing a 1,000-year schism.
On the eve of Francis's departure, on Thursday, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said the Catholic Church must denounce crime. "The pope's presence in Mexico," he said, aims to "help rediscover and live, in daily life, the announcement and testimony of mercy". The Church is called on "to denounce the evil that is present, raise its voice against all those negative phenomena starting with corruption, narcotrafficking, violence, and crime, which prevent the country from swiftly proceeding along the path of material and spiritual progress". In a year of more economic gloom and a steady news drip of horrific drug violence, the Mexicans are awaiting Francis with hope, reckoning he can build on the many trips to Mexico made by pope John Paul II. Each stage, each State to be visited by the pope has a different profile within a huge country with a population of 120 million and the world's second highest Catholic population, a Latina American colossus behind only Brazil.
Francis will have to show great diplomatic tact and also a firm hand in addressing institutions targeted by civil society on many fronts, from corruption to inefficiency to the infiltration of narcos power in the land and into finances.
This was confirmed by the June escape of narcoboss Chapo Guzman, captured a month ago, and the tragedy of 43 young people who disappeared in 2014 in the State of Gurerro.
Looming large in the background of the visit will be the two major national emergencies, migrants and narcotraffickers, as people trafficking to the United States becomes a business as lucrative as cocaine. The pope, who always highlights the importance of borderlands, will visit among others the southern frontier of the country, in Chiapas, bordering on Guatemala, and the northern one at Ciudad Juarez on the border with the United States. Immediately after arriving from Italy, after the Cuba stop to meet Kirill, Francis will find the megapolis of Mexico City with its 20 million inhabitants and numerous problems.
The next stage of the visit, Ecatepec, 30 km from the capital, is one immense periphery where there is crime, internal migrations, 'femicides', and an area of 'ciudades perdidas', the equivalent of Brazil's favelas. Then the pope will move onto Chiapas, the country's poorest State where he will find people who claim their descent from the Mayas - tzotziles, tzeltales, and lacandones, to name a few - as well as the entry point for central American migrants aiming for the US. Michoacan, then, is a State besieged by violence, where alliances between narcos and power are ongoing as well as clashes between the gangs and self-defence groups.
Finally, at the end of his trip, Francis will reach Ciudad Juarez, until recently considered one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
In that city he will visit the notorious Cereso 3 prison, which holds many of Mexico's most feared narcos hitmen.
On the eve of the pope's visit there was a mutiny at another ill-famed jail, at Monterrey, in which at least 52 people died. The pope's whole trip will be closely watched by the international media, but the preceding stage, the Havana meeting with Kirill, will perhaps be even more powerfully scrutinized.
Francis, who during his time in Buenos Aires established close links to the local chapter of the Russian Orthodox Church, will meet Kirill at Havana's Jose' Marti' International Airport, where the two religious leaders will sign a joint statement.
Kirill said last week he wanted to meet Francis outside Europe because "Europe is linked to the hard story of the divisions and conflicts between Christians," according to Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, head of the external relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The question of the so-called Uniate churches, long a bone of contention between the two sides, could now be resolved, many hope.
Another wall may be coming down, according to observers of the two Churches.
The Havana meeting was hailed by Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, head of Europe's bishops, who said it marks "a further step towards the unity and the common testimony of Christians".
Budapest Archbishop Erdo said in a letter to Francis and Kyrill that "this historic meeting, which happily sets the seal on decades of dialogue between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, also comforts the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) in its choice of investing in this dialogue".
The meeting has been in the works a long time, said Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.
"This meeting...is the first of its kind in history and will mark an important milestone in relations between the two Churches," the joint statement said.
"The Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate hope it will also be a sign of hope for all men of good will".
Kirill, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009, will be on an official visit to Cuba.
The meeting has been in the works for years and will be aimed at a further thaw in relations.
Once-frosty relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches have seesawed in recent years.
The Holy See and Russia were able to formally upgrade their relations from 'official' to 'diplomatic' in December 2009 following a gradual thawing of relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.
The Russian Church had accused the Catholics of trying to lure people over to their brand of Christianity on their back yard, prompting unfriendly relations between the Holy See and the Russian state too.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the few heads of state not to attend late pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005.
But the two Churches have been increasingly seeking to launch joint initiatives on areas of concern to them since the papacy of Benedict XVI, such as growing secularism in Europe as well as the increasing persecution of Christians around the world and especially in the Middle East.
Father Stefano Caprio, a lecturer at the Pontifical Oriental Institute for Russian History and Culture, told ANSA he thought Putin was also looking to the meeting to help end Russia's international isolation due to sanctions imposed after its annexation of the Crimea and involvement in the eastern Ukraine conflict.
The meeting between Francis Kirill will last approximately three hours, Russian news agency Interfax reported Thursday citing a source at the Moscow Patriarchate.
The meeting at Havana's Jose' Marti' International Airport will begin at 2.15 pm local time, with 15 minutes open to the public. At the end of the meeting the pope and Kirill will exchange gifts and sign a joint declaration, the contents of which were "agreed" on Wednesday evening, according to Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, head of the external relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church.
However, the declaration can be modified during the course of the meeting between the two religious leaders, Alfeyev said.
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