Hundreds of thousand of Catholic faithful gathered in a gritty Mexico City suburb Sunday to celebrate Mass with Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church.

The pontiff’s message, expected to be of hope and solidarity, takes place at an outdoor field in the city of Ecatepec.

The city lies in the populous state of Mexico, a region plagued by warring drug cartels and infamous for a spate of disappearances of women, whose bodies have turned up in abandoned lots or canals.

According to the National Citizens Observatory on Femicide (murders of women), in 2011 and 2012, nearly 1,300 girls and women — more than half between the ages of 10 and 17 — disappeared in the state of Mexico, while 448 were murdered, many with gruesome violence. Further data shows that only about one in four such cases are investigated, with less than two percent of those leading to arrests and convictions.

Appeal for ‘true justice’

On Saturday, the Pope called on Mexican leaders to provide “true justice” and security in the country after years of endemic drug violence, official corruption and poverty.

Francis told President Enrique Pena Nieto and assembled lawmakers in Mexico City they have a responsibility to help citizens gain access to “indispensable material and spiritual goods,” including housing, employment and a peaceful environment.”

In a separate address to Mexican bishops, Francis urged the clerics to take a more aggressive stand against drug trafficking and corruption. He challenged church leaders to denounce what he called the “insidious threat” posed by trafficking.

Chiapas

On Monday, the pope travels to Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state, where he will preside over a Mass conducted in three indigenous languages. He then visits Morelia, the capital of the western state of Michoacan, where farmers in 2013 took up arms to battle the so-called Knights Templar drug cartel.

Francis caps his visit Wednesday in the U.S.-Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s former murder capital, where he is expected to address issues of crime, trafficking and migration.
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