Msgr. Salvador Rangel, a retired bishop who was famous for trying to mediate between drug cartels in Mexico, was located and taken to a hospital after apparently being briefly kidnapped.

About 500 Central American migrants headed out of Mexico City on Friday to embark on the longest and most dangerous leg of their journey to the U.S. border, while thousands more were waiting one day more at a massive improvised shelter.

The group, many with children and even pushing toddlers in strollers, departed Mapastepec at dawn with more than 1,000 miles still to go before they reach the U.S. border.

The Roman Catholic diocese where two priests were killed earlier this month has withdrawn all nuns from the hyper-violent city of Chilapa in southern Mexico.

Mexico's deadliest prison riot in many years broke out just six days before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit another Mexican prison.