That's what Mother Teresa did among the suffering outcasts of India. That's what Dorothy Day did among the suffering poor of New York City. That's what nuns, priests and others did among the suffering civil war refugees of Guatemala and other Central American nations in the 1980s. Out of compassion, and at great personal risk and sacrifice, they went where suffering was most acute and built a home there. What's more, their compassion compelled them, in humble and extraordinary ways, to confront the personal and societal causes of the suffering they were sharing.
Compassion leads directly to confrontation.
We cannot suffer with the poor when we are unwilling to confront those persons and systems that cause poverty. Compassion without confrontation fades quickly into fruitless sentimentalism. Chavez tried to help the Guatemalan refugee by bringing her into her home. That was good and kind. But compassion would have compelled her to confront the root causes of the woman's need to flee her country, or her boyfriend.