Paris, September 26 (RHC)-- Pope Francis is calling for international action to stop the drowning of refugees as they attempt to reach European shores. 

During his visit to Marseilles, France, Pope Francis said the Mediterranean Sea “has become a huge cemetery, where many brothers and sisters are deprived even of the right to a grave.”

The head of the Catholic Church said:  “We should not get used to seeing disasters at sea as mere news stories and those dying at sea as numbers.  No, they have names, faces and stories.  They are broken lives and shattered dreams.”

The United Nations has recorded some 25,000 drownings in the Mediterranean since 2014, though the true death toll is likely much higher.