Pope heads to Mexico's indigenous south as Catholic fervor fades

Pope Francis celebrates mass at Guadalupe's basilica in Mexico City. REUTERS/Max Rossi

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Pope Francis embraced the people of Mexico's poor indigenous south on Monday, denouncing their "systemic" exclusion from society and encouraging the use of native languages in Catholic worship in a bid to stem a tide of Protestant conversions.

The region, mired in poverty and plagued by rising insecurity, has fallen far behind other parts of the country economically.