By Rafael Romo, CNN
(CNN) – It was an exciting day for Laura Dominguez and her 11-year-old daughter Paulina.
They were summoned to their parish, the Saint Cosme and Damian Church in Mexico City to pick up the equivalent of a jackpot for Mexican Catholics: tickets to attend a mass presided by the pope in Gunajuato, about four hours from Mexico City.
Dominguez, a 40-year-old Mexican Red Cross paramedic was elated. "It's very exciting. It's incredible. I never imagined I was going to get the opportunity to attend," Dominguez said.
Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Mexico for the first time Friday. This is also his first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America in his seven-year pontificate. Mexico boasts the second-largest population of Catholics in the world after Brazil, a country the pope visited in 2007 (Brazil's predominant language is Portuguese). He also visited the United States in 2008.
Read the original article at CNN Belief Blog 2012-03-24 »
