text: IMO, empathy is the single-most important virtue/quality lacking in ALL presentations and applications of (supposed) moral law within the institutional Church.  I believe empathy precedes mercy, and lord knows Francis is having a hard enough time promoting a merciful application of "official" Catholicism. (We see a remarkable lack of empathy in this forum when some get on their white horse of righteousness, waving flags of rules and laws.  Funny that Jesus was  associated with the humble donkey in the Gospels.)