Pope Francis given Valentine's Day surprise as girl with cancer sings Ave Maria to him.

 

It was the day of love - and even Pope Francis got a Valentine's surprise.

In his last formal appointment of his second full day in Mexico, Francis visited a pediatric hospital where he kissed dozens of sick children and even dished out medicine.

At one particularly poignant moment, a young patient from the cancer ward sang a beautiful a capella version of Ave Maria for him, bringing the room to tears. 

The girl has been identified by the Catholic News Agency as 15-year-old Alexia Garduño, who suffers from osteosarcoma.

 

And one admirer, who was wheelchair-bound - was particularly charmed by the holy visit and offered Francis a handmade card with a big heart on the front.

Francis asked: 'You made this? Gracias.'

His visit to the Federico Gomez hospital was clearly well-received with some posing for selfies, while others managed to rise from their wheelchairs to embrace him.

The pope makes a point of stopping at children's hospitals during his foreign trips, both to visit with the kids and to thank the staff for caring for them. While parts of the encounters are televised, Francis also visits bedridden patients in private for more personal encounters. 

But despite his warmth towards the sick patients and their staff, the Pope delivered a strong message to the country once again.

Francis held Mass in front of 300,000 people in a murder-ridden suburb of Mexico City, and urged them to create a country free of emigration and 'merchants of death'.

The pontiff used the service in Ecatepec, a rough Mexico City suburb, to touch on two major themes of his trip to Mexico - drug violence and the plight of migrants.  

He urged his flock to turn the country into a 'land of opportunity,' where 'there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream' and where they will 'not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the merchants of death.'