The church's 99 percent

There are parallels to be made of our church and country. In our country, 1 percent of the citizens own a majority of the wealth. In our church, 1 percent of the faithful wield a majority of the power, making decisions, political plays that impact Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Knowing this, I stopped over at MacPherson Square in Washington, D.C., where Occupy D.C. has its camp. I asked some of the protestors what they thought about the Catholic Church. Here's what they had to say:

As there are similarities between our church and our country, there are also parallels to be made of the movements to reform them. Both the church justice movement and the Occupy movement understand the importance of intersections, that racial justice is connected to economic justice is connected to gender justice and so on. Both understand that to create real change, we must stop treating the symptoms of the "-isms" and start unearthing the root causes.

It is yet to be seen whether these revolutions will help our country and our church evolve. I pray they do.

[Kate Childs Graham writes for ReligionDispatches.org and YoungAdultCatholics-Blog.com. She also serves on the Women’s Ordination Conference board of directors and the Call to Action Next Generation Leadership Team.]

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