'We live a life of fear'

MORELIA, Mexico--Alma Martinez got a call last year that made her whole body go cold. Her mom's voice sounded shaky and harsh: "They have him," she said, referring to Martinez's uncle.

"But who has him?" Martinez asked. "Los narcos," her mother said. The narco traffickers.

Martinez, 17, traveled miles Tuesday to see and hear Pope Francis, hoping his message would bring comfort to the thousands of victims of drug-gang violence like her and her family

"Something like that really hits you, you know?" she said, speaking of her uncle's kidnapping and eventual freedom, after the family paid a ransom. "And it's not just us -- it happens to a lot of families here in Michoacan."

The pope chose Michoacan for precisely that reason, to speak to victims of the violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Mexico in recent years.

After urging Mexico's political and religious leaders to take stronger stands against organized crime, Francis came to this front line of the drug war, the western state of Michoacan, where many, like Martinez, were looking to the head of the Roman Catholic Church to keep up the pressure.

The pope's strongly worded speech has been widely embraced here in a region that has reached states of near-anarchy from years of drug cartel domination and government corruption.

Francis did not specifically mention the dozens of priests who have been killed, kidnapped or threatened by drug traffickers and other criminal gangs in Michoacan. But he did allude to the larger panorama of victims, urging Mexicans to resist the despair and "resignation" that so much violence creates.

"A resignation which paralyzes us and prevents us not only from walking, but also from making the journey," the pope said as he presided over Mass before thousands of faithful in this picturesque capital.

The pope returned to a common theme since his arrival in Mexico.

"What temptation can come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug trafficking, disregard for human dignity, and indifference in the face of suffering and vulnerability?" the pope said.

"What temptation might we suffer over and over again when faced with this reality which seems to have become a permanent system?"

In Michoacan, it is a reality that is worryingly familiar.

"There's so much violence here, we live it every day," said Agustina Santillan as she waited for the pope's appearance. "If I could talk to him, I would tell him that we live a life of fear."

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 9:46 PM with the headline "'We live a life of fear'."