
A mountain in Ciudad Juarez bears the evangelical message: “The Bible is the truth: Read it.”
(Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

A car drives past a billboard advertising Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Ciudad Juarez on Jan. 29, 2016.
(Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

The stage for Pope Francis’ public mass in Ciudad Juarez is but a mere skeleton of its future incarnation. (Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

Construction workers dig trenches for tubing at the site of Pope Francis’ public mass in Ciudad Juarez. They hope to finish by Feb. 17 — the day of the mass. (Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

People gather inside a small tent in downtown Juarez, set up to anticipate Pope Francis’ visit, on Jan. 29, 2016.
(Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

A woman inside the tent writes a message in a book to be presented as a gift to Pope Francis.
(Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

Beatriz Caballero (right) adjusts the “penacho” of her daughter, Annasophia Marquez. They dance as part of the Danza Guadalupana San Marcos. (Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

The “penacho” of Annasophia Marquez features a design of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The “matachines” will perform a dance during the Sun Bowl event on Feb. 17. (Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)

A cashier in The Madonna Shop in El Paso, Texas helps a customer buying Pope Francis merchandise on Jan. 30, 2016. (Photo by Miguel Otárola/Cronkite News)
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, MEXICO — The stage for Pope Francis’ highly anticipated public mass along the U.S.-Mexico border is just a skeleton of its future incarnation. But in a few days Francis will use it to address tens of thousands of people with a long-awaited message: Ciudad Juárez is back.
Francis historic visit starts Friday in Mexico City, beginning a six-day pilgrimage that ends in Juárez on Feb. 17. The daylong stop is planned as a symbol of progress for a city rebuilding itself from a wounded past, the result of drug-related violence that left more than 10,000 dead between 2008 and 2012.
“The Mexico of violence, the Mexico of corruption, the Mexico of drug trafficking, the Mexico of cartels, that isn’t the one our mother wants,” Francis said Wednesday in a
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