Vatican City - The Vatican announced on Friday that it will hold a dialogue with nonbelievers in three Mexican cities next month.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, who heads the Vatican's culture office, says this will be the first time the "Courtyard of the Gentiles" meetings will have ever taken place in a Latin American country.

He said that the crimes and the religiosity professed by drug traffickers will be discussed at sessions to be held May 6th - 9th at universities in Monterrey, Puebla, and Mexico City.

The Vatican says the event will give seminarians, university students, bishops, and atheists an "occasion to reflect on the place of faith in Mexico's public and academic life."

Pope Benedict XVI said in 2009 that he thought the Roman Catholic Church should hold such meetings so nonbelievers could get to know God.