This story is free to read.

The Latest: Pope greets faithful on 1st full day in Mexico

Women show their blanket decorated with an image of Pope Francis and the Virgin of Guadalupe where they wait along the route the pontiff will take from the airport to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. Pope Francis is arriving Friday for a week-long visit. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Women show their blanket decorated with an image of Pope Francis and the Virgin of Guadalupe where they wait along the route the pontiff will take from the airport to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Mexico City, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. Pope Francis is arriving Friday for a week-long visit. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

By Associated Press February 13, 2016 1 min read

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The Latest on Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico (all times local):

8:45 a.m.

Tens of thousands of cheering Mexicans have gathered outside the residence where Pope Francis is staying to send him off on his first full day in Mexico: an official welcome at the presidential palace, a meeting with the country’s bishops and a Mass at the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Cheers went up as Francis pulled out in his popemobile and abruptly stopped to greet elderly, sick and disabled people who had gathered outside the residence of the Vatican nuncio. He handed out rosaries to faithful in wheelchairs and embraced a young boy wearing a surgical mask.

Thousands more Mexicans are lining his motorcade route and history’s first Latin American pope is basking in the welcome from the largest Spanish-speaking Catholic country in the world.