Archbishop confirms Pope will visit Mexico in February

Pope Francis will visit Mexico in February, his first trip to the Catholic country, said Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City.

Cardinal Rivera, the Archbishop of Mexico, who revealed that Francis will arrive in Mexico on 12 February during a homily, said that "from that day onward, we will receive him with a lot of affection".

The Vatican is yet to confirm any details of the trip.

Father Hugo Valdemar Romero, Mexico City Archdiocese spokesman, said Vatican officials responsible for organising papal trips are expected to arrive in Mexico today (3 November) and that the details of the Pope itinerary "are still to be determined".

Vatican and Mexican church officials confirmed in October that Pope Francis would visit Mexico in 2016, triggering media speculation on where he would visit. A number of regional politicians have been angling for the Vatican to announce a visit to their states.

"It's due to the decadence of the political class" and it wanting to "take advantage ... of the Pope's enormous popularity," Father Valdemar said of the enthusiasm for the Pope among politicians, a group that clung to anti-clerical ideals in past decades as church and state were officially estranged in Mexico.

Both houses of the Mexican Congress have invited Pope Francis to speak - as he did in the United States - but Father Valdemar called that possibility "unlikely".

Mexico has more than 101 million Catholics, more than 90 per cent of the population, which makes it the second largest population of Catholics for a country behind Brazil, which has 130 million Catholics. 

The pope's mission is "evangelising and reinvigorating the believers' faith," said Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel of San Cristobal de las Casas in southern Chiapas state, the newspaper La Jornada reported.

Pope Francis is expected to stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the world's most visited Marian shrine.

Pope Francis is likely to make a stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City during his visit in February (PA)

States mentioned for visits include Michoacan to the west of Mexico City, where outward migration has been strong for generations. Self-defence groups formed there in recent years with the blessing of parish priests to fight back against drug cartels. Chiapas, home to a large indigenous population, also has been mentioned.

Pope Francis said in September that he had wanted to visit Mexico, but instead went to Cuba in advance of his US trip. In Mexico, Pope Francis told reporters his wish was to symbolically cross from the border city of Ciudad Juarez into the U.S. as an expression of solidarity with migrants.

Priests, religious and lay Catholics are at the front lines of those offering humanitarian and legal assistance to the thousands of Central Americans transiting the country on northbound trips, although such migrants are increasingly being detained and deported.

"The subject he wants to address is migration and Ciudad Juarez is being signalled," Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes of Tlalnepantla told the newspaper Excelsior.

Francis will be the third pope to visit Mexico. Pope Benedict XVI made the last visit in 2012, traveling to Guanajuato state.