The Latest: Crowd gathers for papal Mass in Havana

Faithful wait for the start of a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. Pope Francis opens his first full day in Cuba on Sunday with what normally would be the culminating highlight of a papal visit: Mass before hundreds of thousands of people in Havana's evocative Revolution Plaza. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Faithful wait for the start of a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. Pope Francis opens his first full day in Cuba on Sunday with what normally would be the culminating highlight of a papal visit: Mass before hundreds of thousands of people in Havana's evocative Revolution Plaza. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

By Associated Press September 20, 2015 1 min read

HAVANA (AP) – The latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba and the United States. All times local:

8:15 a.m.

The sun has risen over Havana’s Revolution Plaza and already thousands of people have filled the square ahead of Pope Francis’ first Mass in Cuba.

Believers and non-believers alike have streamed into the square, waiting for Francis to arrive by popemobile. The square’s iconic metal portrait of Che Guevara competes with a huge poster of Christ facing the altar where Francis will celebrate Mass.

Cubans know that Francis helped spur the United States and Cuba to their historic rapprochement, and they are coming out in droves to see history’s first Latin American pope.