“Compassion and empathy are sadly in danger of disappearing today,” Pope Leo XIV told a Christian and Muslim interreligious delegation at the Vatican on Monday, May 11. The Pontiff specifically took aim at the apathy caused by the “constant flow of images and videos” online.
The Pontiff met with Christian and Muslim leaders at the Vatican on Monday, urging them to combat the rising tide of "digital indifference."
The Pope received participants of a colloquium dedicated to empathy and compassion, jointly organized at the Vatican by the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, the uncle of King Abdullah II and founder of the institute, attended the audience.
Compassion and empathy are not “marginal,” Leo XIV pointed out, but rather “essential attitudes of both of our religious traditions and important aspects of what it means to live a truly human life.”
In his address, Leo XIV expressed his “appreciation for the generous efforts of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in welcoming refugees and assisting those in need in difficult circumstances.” According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Jordan hosted more than 564,000 refugees in 2025, primarily from Syria and Iraq.
Jordan is also organically linked to Palestine — since a large portion of its population is of Palestinian descent — as well as to the Holy Land, given that the King of Jordan is the official custodian of Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
A spiritual challenge of our time
Commenting on the meeting's theme, the Pope pointed out that both Muslim and Christian traditions value compassion.
“For our traditions, human compassion and empathy are not something additional or optional, but are a call from God to reflect his goodness in our daily lives,” he noted.
Christians, the Pope explained, worship “a God who does not remain indifferent to suffering.” So close is God to us that “this divine compassion becomes visible and tangible” in Jesus Christ. This has concrete consequences for Christians, who are called to follow the example of Jesus, “sharing in or ‘suffering with’ others, particularly the most disadvantaged.”
Leo XIV cautioned against the rise of indifference resulting from the downsides of modern technology. He warned that “compassion and empathy are sadly in danger of disappearing today,” noting that “the constant flow of images and videos of the hardships of others can dull our hearts rather than stir them.”
“This type of apathy,” the Pope explained, “is becoming one of the most serious spiritual challenges of our time.”
God's "style"
Pope Francis liked to use the word compassion as a descriptor of what he called God's "style."
For example, in a general audience of March of 2021, he spoke of this "style," drawing from a Scriptural text describing Jesus' meeting with a man with leprosy.
Pope Francis said:
Do not forget these three words, that are God’s style: closeness, compassion, and tenderness. It is his way of expressing his paternity towards us.
For example, in a general audience of March of 2021, he spoke of this "style," drawing from a Scriptural text describing Jesus' meeting with a man with leprosy.
Pope Francis said:
Do not forget these three words, that are God’s style: closeness, compassion, and tenderness. It is his way of expressing his paternity towards us.
His predecessor, Pope Francis, had repeatedly denounced the “globalization of indifference.”
Leo XIV encouraged Christians and Muslims to take up a “common mission.” Asking them to draw from the richness of their respective traditions, he urged them “to revive humanity where it has grown cold, to give voice to those who suffer and to transform indifference into solidarity.” Compassion and empathy are key, as “they have the power to restore the dignity of the other.”
