Pope Francis — "The globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep."
The globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep.
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About Pope Francis (born 1936)
First Latin American and Jesuit pope (2013-), who has steered the Catholic Church toward pastoral inclusion on LGBTQ pastoral care, divorced Catholics, and climate. Closely associated with Pope John XXIII (the Vatican II reformer pope) and Cardinal Walter Kasper (his theological ally on pastoral reform). For an intellectual contrast, see Cardinal Raymond Burke, American traditionalist cardinal, former head of the Vatican Apostolic Signatura — Burke is the public face of Catholic traditionalism that views Francis's pastoral approach as doctrinally dangerous — he has formally challenged Amoris Laetitia and other Francis reforms.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Globalization has connected the world yet paradoxically numbed its conscience. When suffering floods screens as endless data — migrant deaths, famine statistics, war footage — emotional distance replaces empathy. We absorb crises without feeling them. The 'ability to weep' means genuine compassionate response: letting another's pain register as real. Francis argues this capacity has been systematically eroded by cultures and systems that reduce human beings to anonymous numbers or background noise.
Relevance to Pope Francis
Born in Buenos Aires, Francis grew up close to poverty and inequality. As a Jesuit, he vowed service to the marginalized. He coined this exact phrase during his first papal trip outside Rome — to Lampedusa in July 2013 — mourning migrants drowned crossing the Mediterranean. His papacy consistently attacks consumerism and structural indifference, rooted in his conviction that personally encountering the suffering other is the irreducible core of Christian moral life.
The era
Francis delivered this at Lampedusa in July 2013 as Mediterranean drowning deaths were surging — over 20,000 migrants would die crossing between 2014 and 2016. Social media simultaneously created infinite-scroll feeds that normalized catastrophe through sheer volume. Post-2008 austerity had sharpened global inequality while wealthy nations debated closing borders. Francis challenged an era when audiences could watch live humanitarian disasters trending online and scroll to the next story within seconds.
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