It was an important message for the 2.2 million people of Latvia, where today 37 percent of the population are Russian.

On his second day in Lithuania, Pope Francis traveled 65 miles to Kaunas, the country’s second largest city, to celebrate Mass in Santakos Park for more than 100,000 people.

Pope Francis arrived in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to celebrate the centenary of the country’s independence.

Pope Francis ends his official visit to Vilnius on Sunday evening at the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, housed in the former headquarters of the K.G.B.

He is the second pope to visit these Baltic nations. John Paul II came to the region in September 1993, after the collapse of communism, and was welcomed as a hero. Pope Francis comes exactly 25 years later, but much has changed since that first papal visit.

Francis is visiting Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to help mark their centennial of independence from czarist Russia.