SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum this week discussed the likelihood of Pope Leo XIV visiting Mexico this year, saying her country is in the process of finalizing dates for a papal tour.

Sheinbaum told reporters that Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior, is in charge of arranging the papal visit.

Sheinbaum expects the visit to take place at some point this year, something that came up during a phone conversation with the pope last month.

Sheinbaum says she and Leo XIV share a goal for world peace and concerns with immigration and other human rights issues.

Mexico’s archdiocese says the pope first expressed a desire to visit Mexico a few days after being elected and that he has an “interest in visiting Mexico’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, to entrust his papacy to her.”