Addressing huge crowds in Marseille, Pope Francis urged European governments to act together to welcome migrants and prevent the Mediterranean, where thousands have drowned, from becoming a "sea of death", reports RFI.
Immigration issues dominated Francis's 27-hour trip to the French port of Marseille, which has been a crossroads of cultures and religions for centuries.
In a 35-minute speech on Saturday morning, closing a Church conference on Mediterranean issues, the pontiff urged governments to welcome migrants instead of viewing them as invaders.
"Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome," he said.
"There is a cry of pain that resonates most of all, and it is turning the Mediterranean, the 'mare nostrum', from the cradle of civilization into the 'mare mortuum', the graveyard of dignity: it is the stifled cry of migrant brothers and sisters," he said, using Latin terms meaning "our sea" and "sea of death".
According to UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, about 178,500 migrants have come to Europe via the Mediterranean this year, while about 2,500 died or went missing.
Last week some 8,500 people arrived on 199 boats on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
In his address, Francis called on people to "hear the cries of pain" rising from migrants seeking a better life.
He said migration was not an emergency but "a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response".