Jesus would never ask you to be hit men said Pope Francis on Michoacan state

Not to be tempted by the lure of easy money and big cars offered by the drug traffickers asked Pope Francis the young people in Mexico. Jesus would never ask them to be "hit men" said the Pope in the audience of the gang infested city.

Michoacan state is torn apart by gang wars of the metamphetamine trade, while kidnapping and extortion by gangs is on daily schedule.

"It is a lie to believe that the only way to live, or to be young, is to entrust oneself to drug dealers or others who do nothing but sow destruction and death," he told young people at a stadium rally in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan.

"Jesus would never ask us to be hit men," the pope said. "He would never send us out to death."

Francis, the first Latin American pope, is traveling to some of the poorest and most violent corners of Mexico on a six-day trip to bring a message of hope to millions of marginalized people.