Today at our Catholic liturgy at St. Ben’s, all the women in the Church were asked to be part of the entrance ceremony into Church. After a brief homily by the male priest two elderly women told their life stories. This was all well and good, although it made for a longer liturgy, but when push came to shove it was only the male priest and the male deacon at the altar presiding over Mass.

Women have made a lot of progress in our society, but, at least from the Catholic Church position, it stops at the altar. Only men can be priest and deacons presiding over the liturgy and sacraments.

A lot of groups in our society, from minorities and poor, are made to ‘feel good’ at times but the effort stops short of power. According to our Supreme Court money is free speech and according to our economy money makes money (usury) so people with money and are supported by money get power and the marginalized and poor without power and money are not equal.

“All men are equal” in our Declaration of Independence meant and still means “All white men are more equal”. The President says there is ‘equal opportunity’ for all those that want it and work for it. But although he is of of mixed race, white and African parents, he presides over a government where the rich are getting richer at a faster pace than ever and the poor are getting poorer faster than ever. A poor black young male with a police record has very little opportunity in our society despite how hard he tries and works to get ahead.

So much of what happens with our government, be it the replacement of the street we live on, how we fight ‘dirty wars’ or the spending of money given to poor via St. Vincent de Paul Society goes on behind the scenes, with secrecy and is non-transparent. This is true despite the fact we claim to be an open society with access of information to everyone.

We all have heard how money corrupts and more money corrupts even more but a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated in 1949, rings in my ears. “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy as they undoubtedly are today.”

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.