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It’s a delight to be in Mexico City again. I’m touring Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca thanks to Regina Tours and the Mexican Tourism Board. I’ll be sharing what I see with readers through this blog and through videos — found here, on Facebook.com/thecatholicsun, and on our YourTube channel, youtube.com/thecatholicsun.

Mexico City airport.

Most folks I spoke with before I left were terrified. Most of what you hear about Mexico is the ongoing violence. That’s real, of course. But something that really rang clear today, my first day in Mexico City, is that the tourist locations, including the Catholic tourist and pilgrimage sites, are safe. The Mexican government has a special division of law enforcement charged with keeping tourists safe, and they’re concentrated in tourist locations. That just makes sense. They want to keep tourists coming to their country.

Seeing all of Mexico as a dangerous place is an easy trap to fall into — just like believing you have a 50/50 chance of getting mugged walking down the street in New York. But New York is big, and not every neighborhood is as dangerous as the next. A lot of New York is pretty safe.

Well, Mexico is even bigger. Imagine if someone judged all of the United States by the crime in Washington. It’s just not accurate.

Tomorrow, the tour really begins. We’ll be hitting Tlatelolco, the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, the Church of St. James — where St. Juan Diego was baptized — and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We’ll also be stopping at Teotihuacan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the pyramids of the Sun, Moon and Temple of Quetzal.

It promises to be an amazing day, and I hope to share as much of it as I can.