Reading the news every morning is nothing short of chilling. Not only because of the sheer number of stories about violence or war around the world, but because the existential burden of the victims—their suffering, their despair, their muffled cries of pain—is ignored or at least normalized.
In effect, victims are reduced to photographs, to rhetorical resources for political speeches, or at times to statistics in official tallies of the violated. But what happens to that mysterious moment when the power of the aggressor overwhelms, crushes, and leaves the other defenseless, unable to respond to the assault? What happens to the violated flesh, to the lost innocence, to the weeping born of shame? What becomes of the weight of what has happened—of that “fact” from the past that cannot be changed and now lives in the depths of the mind and heart of the one who has suffered injustice?
There is a devastating qualitative reality when one is a “victim.” So devastating that at times it is hidden away because we don’t know what to do with it. At other times, when it is finally voiced, it leaves a bitter aftertaste: the taste of the unutterable, of something that can never fully be expressed, of horror and meaninglessness endured with clenched fists and silent sobs.
As an example, I recall how, a few years ago in a “developed” country, some victims of sexual abuse were finally able—after much time—to speak of the violations they had suffered. I remember how the case reached the courts and the issue of “reparation for damages” was raised. I also recall how people close to the cruel aggressor sought to discredit the victims, saying, “They’re only after money.” Unbelievable.
The immeasurable pain of a victim is a mystery that challenges peaceful bourgeois life. I think of the “madres buscadores” (Mexico’s “searching mothers”), of persecuted migrants, of raped women, of beaten children, of tortured youth. All of them carry within their hearts a flow of tears that will never dry. It will not dry because it is the true, infinite longing for justice, just as Max Horkheimer once intuited. It will not dry because it is a cry for the true Justice that must, even now, find a way to move within history.
Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, with his characteristic insight, wrote a book that sheds light on this subject. It is titled On Job: God-talk and the Suffering of the Innocent.[1] From it, I draw several guiding ideas: only by learning to listen to pain and committing ourselves to the victims can we speak from their hope. Only by taking seriously their open wounds, the suffering of the innocent, and living in the light of the mystery of an infinite Love—one that loves the humiliated even unto the cross—can we avoid becoming complicit in the actions of people, groups, or ideologies that deny human dignity, especially the dignity of the most vulnerable.
The ongoing invisibility of victims can be overcome by embracing them with compassion, by allowing ourselves to be challenged by their presence, and by letting their battered voices resonate in our consciences—moving us toward the kind of concrete and empirical solidarity that heals, liberates, and teaches.
[Originally published in Spanish in El Heraldo de México, July 7, 2025]
Note
[1] Gutiérrez, Gustavo. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987. (Original Spanish: Gutiérrez, Gustavo. Hablar de Dios desde el sufrimiento del inocente: Una reflexión sobre el libro de Job. Lima: Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones (CEP), 1986.)
Image: Photos of missing children of Mexico’s madres buscadores (“searching mothers”). YouTube screenshot.
Rodrigo Guerra López is the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Originally from Mexico City, he graduated in philosophy from the Free Popular University of the State of Puebla, Mexico; he was then awarded a higher degree in university humanism from the Ibero-American University, Mexico, and a doctorate in philosophy from the International Academy of Philosophy of the Principality of Liechtenstein.
He has held the role of academic coordinator of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute in Mexico City and has served as professor of metaphysics, bioethics, and philosophy of law at the PanAmerican University, Mexico. In 2013 he held the Karol Wojtyla Memorial Lectures at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
From 2004 to 2007 he directed the Observatorio Socio Pastoral of the Latin American Episcopal Council. In 2008 he founded the Centro de Investigación Social Avanzada (CISAV), of which he is professor-researcher of the Division of Philosophy and member of the Consejo de Gobierno.
He is a member of the theological commission of the Latin American Episcopal Council and of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and is the author of numerous publications in the field of anthropology, bioethics, and social philosophy.
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