This could go wildly off-topic... but.. when you talk of Catholicism having status hierarchies, as someone from the Catholic tradition myself it seems to me tha

This could go wildly off-topic... but.. when you talk of Catholicism having status hierarchies, as someone from the Catholic tradition myself it seems to me that most (at least here in UK) do believe precisely in "everyone is equal in the sight of God". That is rooted in Catholic teaching actually. Maybe you're referring to women being treated as 2cnd class citizens? Which is indeed a massive problem. From experience discussing such things, most Catholics at least here in the UK seem to see absolutely no reason why women couldn't be priests, the powers-that-be just keep it the same because "it's always been that way", or they fear splitting the church over the issue. Which is not right, needs fixing, gets ever more embarrassing every day. You may also be referring to homophobia, which does exist among people in the church - although I dunno if its worse amongst believers than no-believers, just looks worse , more hypocritical / strident when done by someone who claims to believe in being nice to people. My view on homophobia is it stems from people being either being (a) secretly "scared" they're gay themselves, and not comfortable with that or, (b) actively using it as a shield to hide their own crimes (e:g Cardinal Pell delivered ultra conservative homophobic rants probably as a way to distract others from what he was up to behind closed doors leading to abuse conviction). Otherwise, why on earth would any straight person have any reason to be mean to someone that's gay or fear them. I know its all different in USA , there's a big strand of ultra conservative Catholics who probably do believe in hierarchy . Not sure they're actually following the Catholic faith though, or doing anything worthy of the title. Just like people in the Middle East killing each other are not following their religions, all of which officially preach peace.