It showed him receiving medical care that he was willingly and eagerly accepting after living in a hole in the ground for weeks. That's what made the comments so absurd. It is also why I suspect the emotion behind the comments was not the pure love and forgiveness you cited, but more of an expression of the cardinal's anti-Americanism, though that is obvious speculation on my part.
Perhaps the cardinal himself does not fully comprehend the significance of what he said about feeling pity. This is how prophecy frequently works, and it's certainly how the Church works, providing spiritual tools by which the faithful utter profound truths accidentally. Athletes sometimes play better than their class, don't they? God uses foolish sinful people to do his work in this world becasue that's by and large the only kind available. Clean water can flow through rusty pipes.