Pope Francis, right, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, exchange gifts as they meet Friday in Havana, Cuba. The two religious leaders signed a 30-point joint declaration of religious unity that committed their churches to overcoming their differences. Pope Francis is now in Mexico for a five-day visit.

MEXICO CITY — Pope Francis kicks off his first trip to Mexico on Saturday with speeches to the country’s political and ecclesial elites, riding in on the success of his historic meeting in Cuba with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

During a three-hour stop in Havana on Friday, Francis embraced Patriarch Kirill and with an exclamation of “finally” took a momentous step toward closing a nearly 1,000-year schism in split Christianity.

The two religious leaders signed a 30-point joint declaration of religious unity that committed their churches to overcoming their differences. Francis tweeted that the meeting was a “gift from God.”

Francis and Kirill also called for political leaders to act on the single most important issue of shared concern between the Catholic and Orthodox churches today: the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria who are being killed and driven from their homes by the Islamic State group.

“In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities,” the declaration said

Later aboard his plane, Francis said the declaration was not a political statement, but rather a pastoral one. It came from “two bishops who met and discussed their pastoral concerns,” he said.

The focus quickly shifted to Francis’ five-day Mexico visit, which will include a very personal prayer before the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine, the largest and most important Marian shrine in the world and one that is particularly important to the first Latin American pope.

As he flew toward Mexico City, Francis said his “most intimate desire” is to pray before the dark-skinned Madonna. She is the patron saint of Mexico and “empress of the Americas,” and millions of pilgrims flock each year to pray before the shroud that bears her image.

Francis arrived in Mexico’s capital to adoring crowds waving yellow handkerchiefs. Mariachis serenaded as his chartered plane pulled to a stop.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, suffering the lowest approval ratings of a Mexican leader in a quarter century, and his wife met Francis on a red carpet.

Onlookers roared as the three walked together, then the lights dimmed and the crowd waved lights as the official song composed for Francis’ visit played. Men in broad sombreros and women in flowing red skirts danced on the tarmac.

Faithful bundled against the evening chill lined up along the route to the Vatican ambassador’s residence to catch a glimpse of the pope in an open-air popemobile. At one spot, people chanted: “You see him, you feel him, the pope is present!” and “Francis, friend, the whole world loves you!”

At one point the motorcade paused when a man ran toward the popemobile, but he was detained by security officers before reaching it.