Pope urges Mexicans to forge a better future

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Pope Francis is urging Mexicans to make the country into a land of opportunity, not a place of emigration where young people are “destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.”

In a final prayer at the end of Mass on Sunday, Francis urged the hundreds of thousands of people who gathered in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec to be on the “front lines” in forging Mexico’s future.

The city of 1.6 million outside the Mexican capital has been afflicted by murders, kidnappings and extortion by criminal gangs.

Speaking out against the drug trade and associated violence is a central theme of the pope’s five-day visit.