Service arising from faith in a God who cares for the world's most vulnerable: these were hallmarks of an April 15, 2009 conference that celebrated the ten-year collaboration between Catholic Relief Services and Fordham University. CRS places graduates of Fordham's International Political Economic and Development program into CRS internships overseas. Begun by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 1943, CRS assists people in the developing world to break free from grinding poverty though community based initiatives in many of the world's poorest countries. Young women and men spoke in a series of workshops of their own first-hand involvement in sustainable development efforts in half a dozen nations.

Justice has often been depicted as both female and blindfolded to convey impartiality. The femininity of the judicial symbol is ironic, since as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has pointed out more than once, it's lonely, gender-ly speaking, on the high bench. But what of empathy, the ability to stand in the other person's shoes? President Obama has identified this quality as essential, but does empathy require raising the blindfold to see who is before the Court, and if so, doesn't that in itself subvert impartiality?