Two things have struck me this morning.
The first is a phrase I came across on a philosophy/theology blog: God "reluctantly permitted". There is something to investigate in those words.

The second is a quotation from The Devil's Novice, by Ellis Peters: "...'A man does what he must do,' said Cadfael carefully, 'whether the duty he has taken on himself is to fight, or to salvage poor souls from the fighting, to kill, to die or to heal. There are many will claim to tell you what is due from you, but only one who can shear through the many, and reach the truth. And that is you, by what light falls for you to show the way.' "
It is the concept of how the light falls for us, and how differently for each of us, that I think unites us all, and should teach me compassion for all, as I never know what light, or lack of it, has fallen in someone's life.