Story highlights Pope Francis is the first pontiff to visit the southeast Asian country

He has been vocal in the past about Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN) In an historic mass to some 150,000 worshipers in Yangon, Myanmar, Pope Francis on Wednesday urged the country's Catholics to respond to hatred and rejection with "forgiveness and compassion."

The pontiff's first visit to the staunchly Buddhist southeast Asian country, and the first ever by a sitting Pope, comes amid allegations of ethnic cleansing of the minority Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State.

In his sermon, the Pope said: "I know that many in Myanmar bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible...We think that healing can come from anger and revenge. Yet the way of revenge is not the way of Jesus."

Squinting in the sun, crowds of Burmese worshipers waved Vatican and national flags while Francis passed them in the Popemobile, as he made his way to the temporary altar at the Kyaikkasan Sports Ground in Yangon.

"Many of you have come from far and remote mountainous areas, some even on foot," he spoke in Italian to the crowd. "I have come as a fellow pilgrim to listen and to learn from you, as well as to offer you some words of hope and consolation."

Pope Francis waves to Myanmar Catholic well wishers prior to an open air mass in Yangon on November 29, 2017.

Read More