Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

Letters from Leo — the American Pope & US Politics

“Jesus Didn’t Say Have Empathy” — Bishop Barron Contradicts Pope Leo XIV in Latest MAGA Crusade

Four months after Pope Leo XIV called empathy “a call from God,” the Bishop of Winona-Rochester told 3.6 million subscribers it threatens truth, justice, and love. Fr. James Martin answered from the Greek — and Barron’s own audience is talking back.

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Christopher Hale
Sep 08, 2026
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A composite of Pope Leo XIV during the release of Magnifica Humanitas in May and Bishop Robert Barron in a file photo from Word on Fire.

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Bishop Robert Barron told his 3.6 million YouTube subscribers on Sunday that empathy is “not a supreme value,” that it has grown “so exaggerated, in fact, that it threatens truth, reality, justice” and love, and that Jesus never asked for it, a homily that contradicts Pope Leo XIV’s teaching on the subject.

The pope clearly disagrees.

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