Pope Francis launched his six-day tour of Mexico Saturday by calling on the duty of the country's political and ecclesiastical elites to protect their citizens and provide them with security, justice and basic social services in the face of the country's grave problems caused by drug violence, migration, corruption and poverty.

The pope's first speech on Saturday addressed Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and other political leaders inside the National Palace, with tens of thousands of people watching on grand screens set up in the Zocalo plaza outside.

"Each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few, to the detriment of the good of all, the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption," Pope Francis said, as The Washington Post reported. "Drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death."

He stated that it is the duty of Mexico's political class to provide "an adequate home, dignified work, food, real justice, effective security, and a peaceful and sane environment" for its people. Around 46 percent of Mexicans live in poverty, including 10 percent in extreme poverty, The New York Times reported. The country's homicide rate increased significantly between 2006 and 2011, declining somewhat before rising again in 2015.

The pope also spoke to Mexico's bishops at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the capital city, challenging the Catholic Church in the country to do more than simply denounce drug trafficking, which makes them sound like little more than "babbling orphans beside a tomb."

The pope's itinerary over the next few days includes visiting Mexico City's Ecatepec suburb, which has seen a sharp increase in femicides. Since 2005, at least 1,554 women have disappeared in Mexico state, in which Ecatepec is located, according to statistics from the National Observatory on Femicide. He will also travel to the country's poorest state of Chiapas, as well as offer a Mass in Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border to honor the migrants who have died trying to reach the U.S.

Francis' Mexican tour comes after a short but historic meeting between the pope and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana, Cuba on Friday, during which both religious leaders called for Christian unity between the two churches. It was the first time that a pope and a Russian Church head came together since the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity separated in the 11th Century, BBC News reported.

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