MEXICO CITY — Pope Francis issued a tough-love message to Mexico’s political and church elites Saturday, telling them they have a duty to provide their people with security, justice, and courageous pastoral care to confront the drug-inspired violence and corruption that are tormenting the country.

The raucous welcome Francis received from cheering Mexicans who lined his motorcade route seven-deep contrasted sharply with his pointed criticism of how church and state leaders here have often failed their people, especially the poorest and most marginalized.

‘‘Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privileges or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, drug trade, exclusion of different cultures, violence, and also human trafficking, kidnapping and death, bringing suffering and slowing down development,’’ he told government authorities at the presidential palace.

In a subsequent hard-hitting speech to his own bishops, Francis challenged church leaders known for their deference to Mexico’s wealthy and powerful to courageously denounce the ‘‘insidious threat’’ posed by the drug trade and not hide behind their own privilege.

He told them to be true pastors, close to their people, and to develop a coherent pastoral plan to help Mexicans ‘‘finally escape the raging waters that drown so many, either victims of the drug trade or those who stand before God with their hands drenched in blood, though with pockets filled with sordid money and their consciences deadened.’’

The speech was met with tepid applause, with only a handful of bishops standing in ovation.

The pope’s grueling schedule appeared to be taking a toll: By Saturday evening, Francis seemed tired and winded. He appeared to doze off during Mass in Mexico City and lost his balance and fell into a chair set up for him to pray before the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The 79-year-old Francis has had an exhausting two days, with back-to-back public events, dozens of miles spent standing in his popemobile and a seven-hour time zone difference. In addition, Mexico City’s altitude of more than 7,000 feet provides a challenge to anyone not acclimatized, perhaps more for Francis who lost part of one lung as a young man.

Francis’ entire five-day trip to Mexico is shining an uncomfortable spotlight on the church’s shortcomings and the government’s failure to solve entrenched social ills that plague many parts of Mexico — poverty, rampant drug-inspired gangland killings, extortion, disappearances of women, corrupt police, and failed public services.

Over the coming days, Francis will travel to the crime-ridden Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec, preach to Indians in poverty-stricken Chiapas, offer solidarity to victims of drug violence in Morelia, and, finally, pay respects to migrants who have died trying to reach the United States, with a cross-border Mass scheduled in Ciudad Juarez.

Francis began his first full day in the country with a winding ride into the capital’s historic center to the delight of tens of thousands of Mexicans greeting history’s first Latin-American pope.

Despite an exhausting Friday that involved a historic embrace with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Francis obliged their demands and stopped to hand out rosaries to the elderly, sick, and disabled.

The mileage that Francis is clocking standing up in his open-air popemobile is a testament to his appreciation of Mexicans’ need to see him up close: After a 14-mile nighttime ride in from the airport and the 9 miles logged Saturday morning, Francis still has about 93 miles more to go before his trip ends Wednesday.

Francis began Saturday by meeting with President Enrique Pena Nieto at the presidential palace. He told the president and other members of government that public officials responsible for the common good must be honest and upright and not be seduced by privilege or corruption.