According to the Vatican, 150,000 people attended the Mass at the Kyaikkasan sports ground.

The pope's first meetings would usually be with the head of state and head of government.

Gen. Min Aung Hlaing wields great political power in the country.

The Vatican announced it had launched a new investigation into reports about sexual abuse in a pre-seminary for young adolescents run by the Diocese of Como, Italy, but located inside the Vatican.

Pope Francis formally recognized the martyrdom of an Italian Consolata sister murdered in Somalia in 2006 and the martyrdom of a 25-year-old priest in Hungary in 1957.

"We long for this wound in the Body of Christ to be healed."

"We don't have to agree on everything, but our relationship is strong enough that it can weather disagreements."

Different Catholic rites are, in fact, "a treasure" for the church.

The Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law is an instrument that must serve the church's pastoral mission of bringing God's mercy to all and leading them to salvation, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis urged them to oppose "one-way streets of exasperated individualism" and "the dead ends of corruption."