Toxic empathy is destroying the West. But more than 60 years ago, Blessed Fulton J. Sheen warned about the dangers of that ideology taking root in the United States.
In 1965, Bishop Fulton Sheen warned about the dangers of toxic empathy, saying it would ruin the United States:
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) September 24, 2026
“False compassion… is a pity shown not to the mugged, but to the mugger; not to the family of the murdered, but to the murderer.” pic.twitter.com/KidGYl1z8p
"And this is what we're in today," Sheen said. "False compassion. False compassion, which is gradually growing in this country, is a pity that is shown not to the mugged, but to the mugger; not to the family of the murdered, but to the murderer. Not to the woman who was raped, but to the rapist. Not to the poor girl who's given a shot of dope, but to the rich boy who happens to come from a fine family."
"There are some judges, some in some of our courts. There are some social workers, not all. There are sob sisters. There are the social slobberers who insist on compassion being shown to the muggers, to the dope fiends," he continued. "To the throat-slashers, to the beatniks. To the prostitutes. To the homosexuals. To the punks."
"So that today the decent man is practically off the reservation. This is a false compassion. How did it start? It started in literature. In the novels of William Saroyan, John Steinbeck. Where pity was extended through the novel to the good-natured slob. Then the novels of Mandel, James Jones, and others, in which pity is shown to every kind of pervert and degenerate," Sheen said.
"As one character says in the novel, the girl said, 'He called me a tramp. Imagine that, he called me a tramp.' And the other girls says, 'I don't understand it. Just because you go out and do all the things that a tramp does, like steal and so forth, doesn't really mean you're not a nice, fine girl.' Now with what result? With the result that crime is increasing, that clemency of a false kind is shown to criminals," he added.
He was prophetic. Just yesterday I wrote about Dr. Idris Evans in Pittsburgh. He was a pediatrician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who dedicated his life to saving sick children. He and his wife were stabbed in their home by a career criminal named Elijah Hemingway. Hemingway's record dates back to at least 2015, and he was recently arrested for burglary in July.
He was not held in prison. He wasn't even given bail.
He was simply cut loose. And now Dr. Evans is dead. His wife, his widow, is seriously injured, and their two children — ages eight and 12 — will grow up without their father.
But Dr. Evans is not alone. Every single day, we read stories about innocent people being murdered by criminals with rap sheets a mile long. And every time, the criminal was set free because some judge believed in this false compassion Blessed Fulton J. Sheen warned us about in 1965.
And part of why we've gone down this path is we've lost leaders — spiritual and political — like Blessed Fulton J. Sheen. Few and far between are the Catholic priests and bishops willing to speak so bluntly about our culture's twisted, inverted priorities.
But Sheen did, and thanks to YouTube, we have access to what he said. It's time to listen to him. As I said the other day, he was beatified now — 22 years after his cause was opened — and not at some other time. The war against communism, toxic empathy, and false compassion is here.
It was a long time coming, and now it's time to win.
