About 70 women judges and lawyers from around the world participated in the recent Vatican Summit for Judges on the plague of human trafficking and organized crime. According to the event’s brochure, the participants were invited to share their experiences on the subject, propose new models and make the most of existing ones. It was the hope of the Summit’s organizers that the women’s “feminine sensitivity, tenderness and delicacy, as well as their ability to weigh matters seriously and equitably, might play a decisive role in administering justice in every case and proposing better practices.”
“It is not irrelevant,” the brochure continues, “that Justice is traditionally represented as a female, the allegorical personification of the moral rectitude on which the judicial system should be based. There is no doubt that this allegory is founded on the universal recognition of woman’s ethical and human values. It is commonly acknowledged that women are more able than men to direct their attention to the concrete person in different situations and that the feminine vocation for justice and society–namely, to give all people their due–develops this disposition even further. The dignity of the woman judge is closely connected to the goodness and firmness that springs from a love capable of interpersonal relationships.”