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The Latest on Pope Francis's trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh (all times local):

12:30 p.m.

Thousands of Catholics from across Myanmar have come to the nation's biggest city of Yangon to welcome Pope Francis to the country.

The pope is due to arrive Monday afternoon. His visit will include meetings with Myanmar leaders before heading to Bangladesh.

Father Brang Htoi came with 1,600 Catholics from Kachin state to welcome the pope at the airport. He says, "We are very excited to welcome him."

Catholics are one of the smallest religious minority groups in Myanmar with over 660,000 people, just over 1 percent of the population of 52 million.