An Option for the Victims of Injustice

Photos of the south end of the Mendota Bridge, taken from Fort Snelling State Park.
I ran across a mention of this article on Amy Hereford's blog, and wanted to extend it here. It takes the notion of "preferential option for the poor," a staple of Catholic social teaching and activity, to the deeper, and I think, more evocative level of "option for the victims of injustice."

From an article by Jose M. Vigil...

Theologically speaking, «poor» refers precisely to those who are «the victims of injustice». God does not opt for the poor because they are poor, (economically or materially), but opts for the poor because they are «the victims of injustice». Economic poverty is not in itself a theological category, but injustice, often a cause of economic poverty, is a theological category. Theologically considered «the option for the poor» is in reality an «option for the victims of injustice». If it is called «option for the poor», this is due to the fact that the poor (economically) are the primary victims of injustice and its par excellence expression. Speaking with theological precision, the subjects of this option for the poor cannot be identified with the «economically poor» in themselves nor with «the poor who are good», or with those who are «poor in some other sense of the word» or who are «poor in spirit»… (because of the metaphorical word games, all of these definitions are elusive and inadequate), rather the subjects of this option are «the victims of injustice», economically poor or not, metaphorically or not.
Read the whole article: http://www.sedos.org/english/vigil_2.htm