Pope John Paul II delighted millions of Mexico's poorest people by canonizing the Americas' first indigenous saint, but talk about the saint was eclipsed by a controversial kiss.
Upon the pope's arrival here Tuesday night, President Vicente Fox bent over and kissed the papal ring, a traditional gesture of reverence. But in a country with a long history of strained government relations with the church, Fox's kiss was startling. It dominated front pages, and news of the kiss filled the airwaves Wednesday.
"And the secular state?" said the headline in the newspaper La Jornada, reflecting continued discomfort among some Mexicans, although the country's population is 90 percent Catholic, and the president openly practices his religion.
Many commentators called the kiss a historic turning point, and some cautioned that Fox appeared too cozy with - and perhaps too deferential to - the church. But in interviews on the street and in commentaries on radio and television, public sentiment seemed to be overwhelmingly with Fox.
"Kissing the ring was a beautiful thing," said Aurora Diaz Cadena, who left her home at 3 a.m. for a glimpse of the pope. "Times have really changed."
For more than 150 years, until Fox took office in 2000, Mexican presidents largely hid their religion. After independence from predominantly Catholic Spain in the early 19th century, the Mexican government separated itself from the powerful church, eventually outlawing worship in public places and prohibiting priests and nuns from voting, commenting on political affairs and wearing religious attire in public.
The last of those restrictions ended with constitutional amendments in 1992. But they did not end in practice until Fox publicly began going to Mass and taking Holy Communion shortly after his election two years ago.
Before the kiss, Fox had already broken taboos - and federal election law - by hoisting a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe during his presidential campaign. He was fined by electoral officials for breaking the ban on mixing religion and political campaigns, even though many Mexicans cheered it.
Polls seem to support Fox's argument that political leaders should be free to practice their religion as long as they do not let it dictate their public policies.
This is Pope John Paul II's fifth visit to Mexico, but it is the first time a president has been so effusively involved. Past presidents have welcomed the pope, then left him to his followers. Fox attended Mass on Wednesday at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and later visited the Vatican residence for a private meeting with the pope. Huge crowds turned out across the city Wednesday, jostling for a glimpse of the pope in his special glass-domed Mercedes.
There was no immediate, reliable estimate of the size of the crowds, but the largest number of people gathered at the basilica, where the pope presided over a Mass to canonize Juan Diego, to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1531.